Prince Charles said Tuesday that his mother is feeling “a lot better” after her bout of COVID.
The heir to the throne made the comments to an inquisitive well-wisher during a royal tour to Southend on Tuesday, which he was visiting to grant it city status.
On a walkabout, Janice Jacom, 64, asked the prince about the queen’s health.
ADVERTISEMENT
She told MailOnline: “I asked the prince about his mother and he said, ‘She’s a lot better now —it was very mild.’”
Further evidence that Queen Elizabeth is recovering well from her bout of COVID comes in the shape of reports that she gathered with an assortment of young royals this weekend, including William and Kate and their children. Also present was the queen’s granddaughter, Princess Beatrice, and Beatrice’s first child, Sienna, who was born in September last year.
Further stoking hopes that she has effectively shrugged off the virus was the fact that the queen held two virtual audiences with foreign ambassadors Tuesday, making video calls from her base at Windsor Castle.
The queen, who turns 96 next month, was due to host a drinks reception for 500 ambassadors at Windsor Castle Wednesday, which would have been her biggest and most high profile in-person public engagement since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, however that event has been postponed, on the advice of the government, amid fears it would be inappropriate given the situation in Ukraine.
MailOnline reported that the queen spent Sunday afternoon with her great grandchildren, just a week after it was announced that she had tested positive for COVID.
The family gathering took place in the grounds of Frogmore House, which is on the Windsor estate. The queen often used to drive there to walk her dogs but this habit has been curtailed in recent months as she has lurched from one health crisis to another.
Harry and Meghan famously converted a dilapidated cottage in the grounds of the big house at Frogmore into a luxury home, but only lived in it briefly before moving to America.
They now rent the home to Beatrice’s sister Princess Eugenie, and her family (she has a 1-year-old son with husband Jack Brooksbank), however MailOnline said that Eugenie, Andrew’s younger daughter, whom the queen is very fond of, was not at home for this weekend’s gathering.
William and Kate are thought to be planning a move to Windsor.
News that the queen is mingling with her grandchildren and great grandchildren suggests that she is now clear of the virus a week after it was formally announced she had contracted it. Prince Charles also got COVID—for a second time—last month and met the queen when he was potentially contagious. However, Buckingham Palace suggested the queen was more likely to have caught it after an outbreak among the “team” at Windsor Castle.
Since the beginning of the pandemic the queen has been tended by a small group of some 20 staff, nicknamed HMS Bubble, who are regularly tested and work in shifts, relieving each other.
Palace sources have briefed the media that the queen is making a good recovery from her coronavirus infection, and said that she only cancelled scheduled online engagements last week because her voice was “rather hoarse.”
