With cold-like symptoms, Queen Elizabeth II tests positive for COVID-19

Buckingham Palace revealed Sunday that Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the palace, Britain’s longest reigning king, 95, is suffering from minor cold-like symptoms and plans to undertake limited duties at Windsor Castle for the next week.

“She will continue to receive medical attention and will adhere to all relevant procedures,” the palace said in a statement.

The queen has been fully immunised, having received three doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

Prince Charles tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month. It was his second time getting it. Duchess Camilla tested positive four days later. Both are completely immunised and have gotten a booster dose.

The palace declined to comment on whether either had lately met with the queen.

Senior British leaders sent get-well greetings as the news spread. “I’m sure I speak for everyone in wishing Her Majesty The Queen a fast recovery from COVID and a rapid return to bright good health,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted. Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, wished the queen “well health and a swift recovery.” “Please get well soon, Ma’am.”

According to palace announcements, the queen spent a night in the hospital in October for unexplained “preliminary investigations” and “regrettably” cancelled two further highly anticipated in-person appearances on doctors’ orders.

She subsequently spent two weeks resting at Windsor Castle, where she has spent the most of her time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in April 2020. She continued to perform “light, desk-based duties.”

On February 6, the queen celebrated her 70th year on the throne. On that date in 1952, her father, King George VI, died at Sandringham, the monarch’s estate in Norfolk, after undergoing lung cancer surgery.

To honour the event, the palace produced a new portrait of the queen, depicting her smiling broadly and dressed in a pale green gown, sitting in front of one of her red despatch boxes containing government paperwork, with a portrait of her father by her side.

The day prior, Queen hosted a low-key celebration for locals and volunteer groups in Sandringham’s ballroom, where she cut a cake with the Platinum Jubilee symbol. Photos from the event show her laughing, joking, and uncovered, dressed in a pale blue gown embroidered with daisies at the waist, pearls, and what appeared to be a platinum double flower brooch. She sliced the cake with a walking cane and her ever-present black pocketbook slung over her arm.

Her long reign will be commemorated with a four-day Platinum Jubilee of parties, parades, and pageants beginning June 2, when the weather (typically) improves.

On the eve of her accession anniversary, the queen released a message of appreciation to her people and family, and said for the first time that it is her “sincere wish” that Duchess Camilla of Cornwall be called as “Queen Consort” when Prince Charles succeeds her.

“And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me,” her message read, according to the statement issued by Buckingham Palace. “And it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

Her decision regarding Camilla put an end to the long-running debate over what to name the former Camilla Parker Bowles, who was once so contentious for purportedly severing Charles’ marriage to the late Princess Diana that she used the title Duchess of Cornwall instead of Princess of Wales.

After a succession of personal difficulties, the queen’s jubilee approaches. Last week, her son, Prince Andrew, reached an out-of-court settlement with accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims she was sex trafficked to the prince when she was 17 by convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew, who has vehemently disputed the charges, agreed to pay an unknown sum to Giuffre’s organisation in support of victims’ rights.

Prince Philip, the queen’s 73-year-old husband, died in April last year, at the height of the pandemic. Strict social distancing regulations required her to sit alone during the funeral service, a sight that moved those who had also experienced sorrow while living with COVID.

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