Buckingham Palace has released another update regarding Queen Elizabeth’s health.
The palace said on Wednesday that the queen, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, held her weekly telephone audience with prime minister Boris Johnson.
The news of the queen’s call followed the US blog Hollywood Unlocked’s false “exclusive” claim that the Queen died on Tuesday, which quickly circulated on social media. The false claim, made on the site’s Instagram page, has yet to be taken down by the blog.
The queen’s positive Covid-19 test came just days after her son, Prince Charles, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, also tested positive. The statement from the palace over the weekend said the queen was “experiencing mild cold like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week”.
The queen cancelled virtual engagements on Tuesday, as the palace said she was “still experiencing mild cold-like symptoms”, but would still “continue with light duties”.
The latest news about the queen’s health comes after questions were raised in October, when the sovereign cancelled a planned engagement to Northern Ireland the day of the trip.
Buckingham Palace said at the time that the queen had “reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days”.
The Sun later published a piece on the monarch’s hospitalisation, prompting the palace to confirm her hospital stay for “preliminary investigations.”
The queen held a virtual appointment the following week, though she cancelled an in-person appearance at the United Nations climate change conference, COP20.
In late October, the palace released another statement on Queen Elizabeth’s health, saying that she was intent in making an in-person appearance at the National Service of Remembrance on November 14.
The queen was unable to attend the service, though, missing it due to a sprained back.
Charles talked about his mother’s health just a few days later, telling press during a trip to Jordan that the sovereign was doing “all right”.
“Once you get to 95, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be,” the Prince of Wales told Sky News royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills in November. “It’s bad enough at 73.”