Queen Camilla Tests Positive for COVID-19 for the Second Time, Cancels Week's Engagements
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Queen Camilla has tested positive for coronavirus nearly a year to the day after her first diagnosis with COVID-19 was announced.
Buckingham Palace shared the news in a statement on Monday.
"After suffering the symptoms of a cold, Her Majesty The Queen Consort has tested positive for the Covid virus," the palace said. "With regret, she has therefore cancelled all her public engagements for this week and sends her sincere apologies to those who had been due to attend them."
Last February, Clarence House announced that Queen Camilla, 75, tested positive for COVID. Camilla tested positive four days after her husband, who was then known as Prince Charles, entered self-isolation following his own positive coronavirus diagnosis.
In a short statement issued on Feb. 14, 2022, a spokesman at Clarence House said, "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating. We continue to follow government guidelines." The palace added at the time that Camilla was tripled-vaccinated against the viral disease.
Tolga Akmen - WPA Pool/Getty Images Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
About a month later, in March 2022, the then-Duchess of Cornwall discussed her lingering symptoms during a meeting at Clarence House.
"It's taken three weeks and still can't get shot of it," Camilla told rowers Kat Cordiner, Abby Johnston and Charlotte Irving, according to Hello! magazine. "Probably my voice might suddenly go, and I might start coughing and spluttering."
The Queen Consort will no longer be traveling to the West Midlands, about a three-hour drive north from London, for engagements on Tuesday as previously planned. Queen Camilla was set to visit the Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham for its 100th anniversary and stop by the Southwater One Library in Telfold to recognize its community contributions.
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The Queen Consort was also set to join King Charles III in Milton Keynes on Thursday to celebrate its new status as a city.
Queen Camilla was in good spirits last week during two back-to-back days of engagements. Last Wednesday, Camilla and King Charles, 74, stepped out in East London to meet activists who were involved in the anti-racism movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The royal couple planted a tree at Altab Ali's namesake park, in memory of the young British Bangladeshi man who was murdered in the area in 1978.
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King Charles and Queen Camilla then moved to Brick Lane to learn more about the charities and businesses at the heart of the local Bangladeshi community. The royals were escorted by a dance procession to walk to Graam Bangla Restaurant, where they met women involved with the British Bangladeshi Power & Inspiration organization, and wrapped the day at Brick Lane Mosque.
Queen Camilla stepped out solo last Thursday, visiting the STORM Family Center in Battersea, London. The charity serves victims of domestic violence and offers support services to community members of all ages, and Camilla came out to celebrate the organization's 19th anniversary.
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The Queen Consort spent time with survivors, met STORM founder Marie Hanson and learned more about the center's activities, from candle-making to computer skills. She even tried her hand at painting on a canvas, which Hello! reports she signed "CR" (for Camilla Regina, Regina meaning "Queen" in Latin).
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Camilla's case of coronavirus in February 2022 was her first and Charles' second. The then-Prince of Wales first tested positive for the viral disease at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. At the time, a spokesperson for the royal told PEOPLE that the prince was in "good spirits" and continued working at home amid "mild symptoms."
Though the news was kept from the public for months, Prince William also tested positive for coronavirus in April 2020.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images King Charles and Queen Camilla at Sandringham recently
The Sun reported in November 2020 that Prince William was "knocked" hard by COVID-19 about seven months before. Because his father had contracted the virus shortly before his own diagnosis, William didn't want to alarm the public any further with the news of him also falling ill.
