Queen Elizabeth Tests Positive for COVID-19, Is ‘Experiencing Mild Cold-Like Symptoms’


Queen Elizabeth II has tested positive for COVID-19, Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday, February 20.

“Buckingham Palace confirm that The Queen has today tested positive for Covid,” the palace’s statement read. “Her Majesty is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week.”

The announcement continued, “She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines.”

The Queen of England, 95, is reported to be fully vaccinated. She and her late husband, Prince Phillip, received their first doses of one of the available vaccines in January 2021, which a spokesperson from Buckingham Palace confirmed in a statement.

“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have today received Covid-19 vaccinations,” the announcement read.

One month later, the queen discussed her experience in receiving the dose.

“It was very quick, and I’ve had lots of letters from people who have been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine,” she said in February 2021 during a video call with health officials. “And the jab, it didn’t hurt at all.”

On February 10, Us Weekly reported that the queen was being monitored after her son, Prince Charles, tested positive for the coronavirus that day, after previously contracting it in March 2020. Charles, 73, had visited Windsor Castle, where the queen lives, to hand out investiture honors on February 8. His wife, Duchess Camilla, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, February 14.

Both the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, and Charles are tripled vaccinated, having received their first doses in February 2021 and announcing they received their booster shots that December. The two also encouraged others to receive the vaccines.

“We can only urge you to look at the evidence in our intensive care wards and listen to those who work there,” the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall’s official statement read in December 2021. “People who are unvaccinated are at least 10 times more likely to be hospitalized or die than those who have had two vaccine doses. That is why we urge everyone to get vaccinated and to take up the booster, as we have done ourselves.”

Just four days before Charles’ positive test result, the queen celebrated her 70th anniversary of being on the throne. She took a moment to express her “sincere wish” for Duchess Camilla to obtain the royal title of Queen Consort when Charles becomes king in the future.

“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,” Queen Elizabeth said on February 6. “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.”