Queen calls off virtual audience after catching Covid
The Queen, 95, is forced to call off virtual audience today as she continues to suffer with ‘cold-like’ Covid symptoms – but palace says she’ll carry on with light duties
- Buckingham Palace revealed Queen has decided not to undertake planned virtual engagements today
- Royal aides say she still is ‘still experiencing mild cold like symptoms’ after testing positive for coronavirus
- Queen, 95, will continue with ‘light duties’ such as dealing with official papers in Windsor Castle apartments
- A telephone call with Prime Minister Boris Johnson tomorrow is still scheduled in Queen’s diary as it stands
The Queen has decided not to undertake her planned virtual engagements today because still is ‘still experiencing mild cold like symptoms’ after testing positive for coronavirus , Buckingham Palace has said.
The 95-year-old monarch will continue with ‘light duties’ such as dealing with official papers in her private Windsor Castle apartments – and further engagements over the coming week will be decided upon nearer the time.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said this morning: ‘As Her Majesty is still experiencing mild cold-like symptoms she has decided not to undertake her planned virtual engagements today, but will continue with light duties.’
Royal officials announced on Sunday morning that the Queen had tested positive but was suffering from only mild ‘cold-like’ symptoms, and it was made clear that she would undertake ‘light duties’ during her isolation period.
A telephone call with Prime Minister Boris Johnson tomorrow is still scheduled in her diary as it stands – and the Queen has been keeping up with the red boxes of official documents that follow her everywhere.
Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on February 16, which was four days before her positive Covid-19 test was announced
She also signed off on a message of condolence to the president of Brazil, where flash floods and landslides have killed at least 171 people in the city of Petropolis, including 27 children and teenagers.
More than 120 people are still missing, and the Queen wrote that she was ‘deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of life and destruction caused by the terrible floods in Brazil’.
She added: ‘My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost their lives, loved ones and homes, as well as the emergency services and all those working to support the recovery efforts.’ It was signed Elizabeth R.
It is the first time that the Queen has contracted Covid and comes during an outbreak of the virus among staff at Windsor Castle.
At the start of the pandemic she was confined to her private apartments, supported by 22 quarantined staff dubbed HMS Bubble. Anyone coming into direct contact with the Queen is still expected to test.
Armed police stand guard in front of Windsor Castle yesterday where the Queen is still keeping up with official papers
But like organisations up and down the country, the royal household has recently been relaxing restrictions.
Within hours of her positive test being announced, the Queen issued a message of congratulations to the Team GB women’s and men’s curling squads following their medal successes at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
She was also well enough to cheer on one of her horses, Kincardine, as it raced to victory at Newbury. The Queen is believed to have watched the race on TV at Windsor Castle.
Concern for the nation’s longest-reigning sovereign is at peak levels given her age, her Covid diagnosis and recent health scare.
The Queen – who quipped last week at an audience with two members of the military that she could not move very well – celebrated her Platinum Jubilee of 70 years on the throne on February 6
A cameraman stands in front of Windsor Castle yesterday, one day after it was announced that the Queen had tested positive
She is believed to be triple vaccinated but until recently had been on doctors’ orders to rest and only undertake light duties since mid-October.
The monarch cancelled a run of major engagements, and also secretly spent a night in hospital on October 20 undergoing preliminary tests.
Yesterday, Mr Johnson set out the Government’s strategy for ‘living with Covid’ as he hailed the development of vaccines and treatments for coronavirus as ‘possibly the greatest national effort in our peacetime history’.
But the Prime Minister said ‘we should be clear that the pandemic is not over’, warning ‘there may be significant resurgences’.
Professor Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said the Omicron wave is ‘still high’, adding that new variants are anticipated, with some expected to ‘just disappear’, while others will cause ‘significant problems’.
Mr Johnson acknowledged there will likely be another variant that will ’cause us trouble’, saying he did not want people to think ‘there’s some division between the gung ho politicians and the cautious, anxious scientists’.
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