Queen Camilla has tested positive for coronavirus nearly a year to the day after her first diagnosis with COVID-19 was announced.
Buckingham Palace shared the news in a statement on Monday.
“After suffering the symptoms of a cold, Her Majesty The Queen Consort has tested positive for the Covid virus,” the palace said. “With regret, she has therefore cancelled all her public engagements for this week and sends her sincere apologies to those who had been due to attend them.”
Last February, Clarence House announced that Queen Camilla, 75, tested positive for COVID. Camilla tested positive four days after her husband, who was then known as Prince Charles, entered self-isolation following his own positive coronavirus diagnosis.
In a short statement issued on Feb. 14, 2022, a spokesman at Clarence House said, “Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating. We continue to follow government guidelines.” The palace added at the time that Camilla was tripled-vaccinated against the viral disease.
About a month later, in March 2022, the then-Duchess of Cornwall discussed her lingering symptoms during a meeting at Clarence House.
“It’s taken three weeks and still can’t get shot of it,” Camilla told rowers Kat Cordiner, Abby Johnston and Charlotte Irving, according to Hello! magazine. “Probably my voice might suddenly go, and I might start coughing and spluttering.”
The Queen Consort will no longer be traveling to the West Midlands, about a three-hour drive north from London, for engagements on Tuesday as previously planned. Queen Camilla was set to visit the Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham for its 100th anniversary and stop by the Southwater One Library in Telfold to recognize its community contributions.
The Queen Consort was also set to join King Charles III in Milton Keynes on Thursday to celebrate its new status as a city.
Queen Camilla was in good spirits last week during two back-to-back days of engagements. Last Wednesday, Camilla and King Charles, 74, stepped out in East London to meet activists who were involved in the anti-racism movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The royal couple planted a tree at Altab Ali’s namesake park, in memory of the young British Bangladeshi man who was murdered in the area in 1978.
King Charles and Queen Camilla then moved to Brick Lane to learn more about the charities and businesses at the heart of the local Bangladeshi community. The royals were escorted by a dance procession to walk to Graam Bangla Restaurant, where they met women involved with the British Bangladeshi Power & Inspiration organization, and wrapped the day at Brick Lane Mosque. (People)