The Queen faces being tested for Covid for several days after it was revealed that she met Prince Charles just two days before he tested positive for the virus.
Buckingham Palace last night refused to confirm whether the 95-year-old monarch had tested positive or negative for Covid, fuelling fears for her health. However, palace sources insisted that she was not displaying symptoms.
Royal doctors will now test Her Majesty frequently after she saw her son the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, it is understood.
The Queen is understood to be triple vaccinated so will not need to self-isolate unless she tests positive. The head of state is thought to have received her first jab in January 2021 and her second jab that March, while sources say it is believed she got her booster in October.
This is the second time Charles, who is also triple jabbed, has tested positive for coronavirus after contracting the disease in March 2020.
Insiders insisted the 73-year-old was found to be positive during a test taken this morning as routine before any public engagements — which suggested he was experiencing no strong symptoms — but they declined to go into further details on his medical condition.
Both he and the Duchess of Cornwall have been taking regular tests before engagements and Clarence House said Camilla, 74, had a negative test on Thursday.
Under current Covid rules, although she lives with Charles, Camilla is not required to self-isolate as she is also fully vaccinated. While in the past, Covid rules would have dictated that all those who had come into contact with Charles must self-isolate, it is no longer a requirement.
Boris Johnson announced he plans to scrap all remaining virus restrictions in England by the end of the month, which would mean even those who have tested positive for the virus will not be required to self-isolate, ‘provided the current encouraging trends in the data continue’.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister hopes the Prince of Wales will make a swift recovery after testing positive.
As well as meeting with his mother, Charles also awarded OBEs to chefs Fergus Henderson, who has Parkinson’s Disease, and his wife Margot as well as an MBE to Dr Nisreen Alwan, who is known for campaigning for more awareness around long Covid.
The Prince of Wales has said he 'got away with it quite lightly' when he contracted coronavirus at the beginning of the UK's epidemic in March.
He spent seven days in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland before resuming his duties.
The Queen has been active this month, holding public engagements as part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
There were concerns for her health late last year after she was forced to slow down by a back sprain and doctor's advice to rest in October and November last year.
Her Majesty, 95, spent a short spell in hospital and was reluctantly told to rest last October after undertaking 19 official engagements that month.
The following month, she also pulled out of Remembrance Sunday ceremonies for the first time since 1999 after spraining her back.
She resumed in-person engagements on November 17 when she received General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of Defence, at Windsor.
At the outset of the pandemic, royal staff went to great lengths to protect the monarch from contracting the virus.
In April 2020, twenty two royal staff sacrificed their home lives to stay isolated at Windsor Castle so they could serve the Queen and her late husband Prince Philip during lockdown.
The mission to protect the royals was dubbed 'HMS Bubble' after the Queen moved from Buckingham Palace to Windsor in March that year where she began isolating with Philip who was flown from Sandringham to join her shortly after.
A year later, in April 2021, strict Covid regulations meant the Queen was forced to wear a mask and sit alone as she attended husband Prince Philip's funeral.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cornwall revealed Prince Charles is finding the situation 'a bit tiresome'.
Camilla, who herself has tested negative, made the remarks on a solo visit to Thames Valley Partnership in Buckinghamshire earlier today.
Speaking to Willie Hartley Russell, high sheriff for Berkshire, during a visit to Thames Valley Partnership on Thursday, she said: 'He's diagnosed now. Luckily (she's negative). I've taken it so many times.'
He added: 'It gets a bit pointless, doesn't it' and Camilla agreed.
Afterwards, Mr Hartley Russell said: 'She said, 'Yes unfortunately he had tested positive again. I said he must be building up lots of antibodies.
'She said something like he's finding it a bit tiresome to have got it again, but she said it in a light-hearted way.'
The news comes the day after Prince Charles and wife Camilla, 74, rubbed shoulders with Home Secretary Priti Patel and Chancellor Rishi Sunak at a British Asian Trust event hosted at the British Museum last night.
Charles, who founded the trust in 2007, told more than 350 guests of the impact of Covid on the region.
Using his pet name for Camilla, the Urdu for 'darling', he said: 'It is almost two years that my Mehabooba and myself were able to be with you. Since then... there has been terrible loss of life.'
The Prince of Wales gave the keynote speech at the event which was attended by more than 350 guests including Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
The Trust was founded by Charles in 2007 alongside British-Asian business leaders to 'support the development of a South Asia that maximises the potential of its people and that is free from inequality and injustice'.
Two-thirds of people in England who had Covid at the start of 2022 may have been reinfected, official data suggests.
One of the country's largest surveillance studies — which randomly tested 100,000 people in the fortnight ending January 20 — found 4.4 per cent had the virus.
Imperial College London experts, who carried out the project, said it was the highest rate ever recorded, mirroring other swabbing surveys which showed how Omicron triggered infections to reach pandemic highs.
The team also claimed England's Covid outbreak was now starting to plateau after the Omicron wave 'rapidly' dropped off on its own.
Analysis of the data showed 2,315 (64.6 per cent) of the 3,582 people who tested positive and were asked about whether they had previously had Covid claimed to have been struck down before.
And a further 267 (7.5 per cent) suspected they had caught Covid previously, even though their case was not confirmed with a test at the time.
Before his speech, Charles and Camilla greeted supporters and ambassadors of the BAT in the museum's Egyptian Gallery.
They first spoke with Mr Sunak and Ms Patel before the four posed for photos.
The duchess later thanked ambassadors Neev Spencer and Ritula Shah as they congratulated her after the Queen's announcement that she would become Queen Consort.
Hitan Mehta, executive director of the trust, said that it was 'amazing' to be able to host the royal couple at the reception after it was not held last year due to the pandemic.
The development comes just days after the Queen marked her Platinum Jubilee by expressing her 'sincere wish' that the Duchess of Cornwall would be Queen Camilla at Charles's side when he is one day King.
The Duchess of Cornwall said today that she is 'very honoured and very touched' to have been endorsed by the Queen.
Camilla has been photographed carrying out her duties today after testing negative.
She first visited Paddington Haven, a sexual assault referral centre in London today. Under Covid rules, you are no longer required to self-isolate if someone from your household tests positive as long as you are fully vaccinated.
At the centre in West London, she met with staff as well as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and spoke with former Love Island star Zara McDermott who discussed her experience of revenge porn and assault.
Camilla then visited Nourish Hub, a community kitchen based in Notting Hill, west London, to mark its opening and as patron of the charity that runs it, UK Harvest, when she was asked by a guest how she felt about the title.
Camilla, 74, spoke with volunteers and refugees at the West London Welcome charity, who were cooking a rice-based Iranian dish called loobia polo for visitors.
A guest who gave his name as DJ, 49, asked the duchess how she felt about her new title.
Camilla told him: 'I feel very honoured, very honoured and very touched.'
In December, both Prince Charles and Camilla confirmed they had received their booster jabs as they urged those who are unvaccinated to get their injections as soon as possible.
It is understood the couple received their first vaccine in February last year and had their boosters in November.
'To all those who have not yet had the vaccine – or are hesitating before getting a booster – we can only urge you to look at the evidence in our intensive care wards and listen to those who work there,' they said.
They added: 'We urge everyone to get vaccinated and to take up the booster, as we have done ourselves.'
Charles's son Prince William also contracted COVID shortly after his father in 2020, with media reports saying he had been hit pretty badly by the virus. It is believed the Duke of Cambridge kept his illness private so not to alarm the public.
The Prince of Wales will now go into self-isolation for 10 days and has cancelled his scheduled engagements.
He had been due to unveil a statue of Licoricia of Winchester today before attending a civic reception at The Great Hall.
The announcement of the prince's positive test was made just after midday, around 12 minutes before Charles was due to arrive in Winchester on the visit to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
Aides were only informed a few moments before.
More than 1,000 people were gathered behind barriers in the city's Jewry Street, waiting to see the prince unveil a new statue of Licoricia of Winchester, a prominent Jewish moneylender who was murdered in 1277 during a period of antisemitism in the reign of Edward I that culminated in the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290.
The Queen's representative in Hampshire, the Lord Lieutenant Nigel Atkinson, told the crowd, who groaned with disappointment when he relayed the news.
Standing at the microphone, the Lord Lieutenant told the crowd: 'As Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, I'm afraid I have some very disappointing news for you. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has tested positive for Covid a few minutes ago and will therefore be unable to join us today.
'However, I do send my very best wishes on behalf of Hampshire to His Royal Highness and hope that he improved soon.'
The Lord Lieutenant, in ceremonial uniform, then read out a message from the prince.
Charles's message said: 'Ladies and gentlemen, I am so sorry that I cannot be with you today. I am desperately disappointed as I was so looking forward to marking this historic occasion with you.
'I hope very much that I will be able to visit at a future time but for today please accept my most heartfelt apologies and my very best wishes as you mark this memorable occasion for Winchester.'
Charles wanted to be there as a symbol of his commitment to religious tolerance in modern Britain. His personal record of support for religious and ethnic minorities has been cited against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's claims of racism inside the royal family.
The statue, by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, shows Licoricia holding hands with her younger son. The moneylender was murdered in 1277 but no one was ever convicted.
After the announcement, the Prince's personal security staff fanned out into the crowd to express his sorrow for having to cancel his visit at such late notice.
Later, in a public statement, the Prince said he was 'deeply disappointed' before pledging to visit the city soon.
In the wake of the Prince's sudden isolation, Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire, Nigel Atkinson stepped into his shoes and unveiled the life-sized bronze statue. The statue was then blessed by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
There has been no immediate comment on Charles' condition.
Covid reinfections - where someone tests positive for Covid-19 more than 90 days after a previous positive result - currently represent around 10 per cent of daily cases in England.
Of the 14.8 million infection episodes in England since the start of the pandemic, some 588,114 (4.0%) are likely reinfections.
Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told the PA news agency: 'Reinfections were always going to become a big feature of Covid.
'The other human coronaviruses cause reinfections throughout life and this will most likely be the case with Covid.'
A reinfection is defined as someone who tests positive for Covid-19 more than 90 days after a previous positive result.
Any positive tests within 90 days of a previous one are counted as part of the same 'infection episode'.
Covid reinfections currently represent around 10% of daily cases in England, though Prof Hunter said that 'this is likely to be a big underestimate as, if reinfections are generally mild, they are less likely to be identified'.
He went on to say: 'Sometimes reinfections occur because of the appearance of new escape variants that can bypass existing immunity to a degree and sometimes it may be just because immunity is waning.
'The recent emergence of the Omicron variant has substantially increased the chances of reinfection compared to what we saw with Delta.
'But in general we can expect reinfections to be less severe than primary infection though not always.'
Of the 14.8 million infection episodes in England since the start of the pandemic, some 588,114 (4.0%) are likely reinfections.
According to analysis by the Office for National Statistics, the risk of reinfection was 16 times higher when Omicron was the dominant strain, compared with the period when Delta was dominant.
Unvaccinated people were twice as likely to be reinfected than those who had their second vaccine dose in the previous 14 to 89 days, the study found.
The Prince of Wales has tested positive for Covid-19 the second time, after he first tested positive in March 2020.
In March 2020, Charles said he has a 'mild' form of the illness, after contracting it while on the Balmoral estate with his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla tested negative and is without any symptoms of the virus.
The Queen and Prince Philip, who died in April 2021, had left the Scottish estate and headed to Windsor Castle. A royal source said at the time Charles' doctor's most conservative estimate was that the prince was contagious on March 13 - 24 hours after 'briefly' meeting the Queen.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'Her Majesty remains in good health. The Queen is following all the appropriate advice with regard to her welfare'.
Prince William secretly battled coronavirus in April 2020 - days after his father Prince Charles contracted it - and was left 'struggling to breathe'.
The Duke of Cambridge, 39, is believed to have kept his illness private so not to alarm the public which were then confronted with a spiralling number of daily deaths. The news emerged he had fought the virus in November 2020.
He caught the virus in the darkest days of the pandemic after the Prince of Wales and Boris Johnson fell ill.
At the time up to a thousand Britons were dying of Covid-19 each day and there had been more than 50,000 cases.
The Duke was treated by palace physicians and quarantined at the family home of Anmer Hall in Norfolk. His wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, did not fall ill or test positive for the virus, it is understood.
That month, William continued working and made 14 telephone and video calls despite sources revealing he was rocked by the disease.
Princess Anne's husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence tested postive for Covid in December 2021 - meaning the couple missed out on Christmas Day with the Queen
MailOnline confirmed that the 66-year-old retired Royal Navy Vice Admiral was recovering from the virus at the Gatcombe Park estate he shares with the Princess Royal.
Aides said Anne is also isolating at the estate in Gloucestershire but did not test positive.
The insider said: 'It's true, Covid is unfortunately on the estate. It means therefore that those in the Royal Household are having to isolate for the time being.'
Anne's daughter Zara Tindall and her husband Mike Tindall also live on the estate with their three children, but are believed to have remained virus free.
Peter Phillips, Anne's son, and his ex-partner Autumn Phillips also live on the estate with their children.
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