Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Charles Contract Covid-19

Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday that Queen Elizabeth II has tested positive for Covid-19, just as leadership in the country has been posed to ease pandemic restrictions further. The 95-year-old Royal has reportedly received three vaccine doses and experienced only mild symptoms so far.

Others in the Royal Family had tested positive for the virus earlier this month. Prince Charles contracted the virus on Thursday, Feb 10, and his wife Camilla came down with it four days later the next Monday. Charles met with Elizabeth two days before he tested positive and began quarantining, but representatives for Buckingham Palace indicated that there were several cases in Windsor Castle that could have ended up infecting the Queen.

“Her majesty is experiencing mild coldlike symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week she will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines,” a representative from Buckingham Palace said on Sunday.

These appropriate guidelines in England will be shifting soon. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has remarks planned for Monday afternoon where he will likely be scrapping the remaining Covid-19 policies in place in England, which include the legal mandate that those who test-positive self-isolate. The rest of the countries in the U.K. will not be affected by these decisions, because they have independence when it comes to making health policy rulings.

Remarks from Johnson’s office added that this statement will mark “a moment of pride after one of the most difficult periods in our country’s history as we begin to learn to live with Covid.” While cases have been going down in England, critics mostly from England’s opposing Labour Party have claimed that the easing of restrictions is declaring victory too soon and will cause another wave of infections.

Others have suggested that Johnson could even be using this walk back of rules as a cover-up for the fact that he’s being investigated for hosting parties at Downing Street which would have been in violation of lockdown restrictions.