Queen tests positive for Covid-19 just days after Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall

The monarch is the latest member of the Royal Family to become infected, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The Prince of Wales, 73, emerged from isolation on Thursday after his second bout of the illness.

The infection force Prince Charles to cancel his trip to Winchester at the 11th hour.

The Duchess of Cornwall’s positive test was announced last Monday – the first time the 74-year-old has had coronavirus.

Heir to the throne Charles first caught Covid in March 2020 – in the early days of the pandemic when the vaccine was not yet available.

He had mild symptoms then and lost his sense of smell and taste. He isolated at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire.

The Duke of Cambridge, now 39, had the virus in April 2020 but kept it a secret.

The fact only emerged seven months later, with The Sun newspaper revealing the duke did not want to alarm the nation.

The duke, who carried on with telephone and online engagements, was treated by royal doctors as he isolated in Norfolk but that he was hit ‘pretty hard’ by the virus and at one stage struggled to breathe, the newspaper said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was being treated in intensive care in a London hospital that month with coronavirus while Charles was in self isolation.

William told one observer at an engagement: “There were important things going on and I didn’t want to worry anyone.”

In December 2021, the Princess Royal’s husband Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence tested positive, meaning Anne and Admiral Sir Timothy could not join the Queen on Christmas Day at Windsor.

Princess Michael of Kent, 77, who is married to the Queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent, suffered severe symptoms when struck down with Covid-19 in November 2020.

She is understood to have had bad lungs as a child making her more susceptible to the disease.

The Queen, 95, is the latest monarch from around the world to catch Covid.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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