ATS
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II said Friday evening that she would not be attending a church service at Westminster Abbey in London on Monday. The ceremony was to mark his first major outing following several months of fragile health.
Some 1,500 people are expected there, as part of the annual Commonwealth Day, to which the sovereign, who will be 96 years old in April, is very attached.
“The Queen has asked the Prince of Wales to represent Her Majesty in Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on Monday,” Buckingham Palace said, adding that the Queen “will pursue other scheduled engagements, including engagements in person in the coming week. The palace gave no reason for the cancellation.
For months, the appearances of the queen have become rare. After spending a night in the hospital in October, for “preliminary examinations” on which no details were ever given, the sovereign, who celebrated her 70th year of reign in February, limited herself to “ light duties” at Windsor Castle, on the advice of his doctors.
Covid-19
The cancellation announced on Friday, guaranteed to raise questions regarding his health, is in addition to that of a diplomatic reception on March 2, which was to be his first major engagement since October. The palace had announced on February 20 that she had been infected with SARS-CoV-2, speaking of “mild symptoms”.
Always stoic, the sovereign, visibly more frail in recent months, has since resumed some light activities, receiving a handful of ambassadors by videoconference at Windsor Castle, where she has lived since the Covid-19 pandemic, for credentials.
Her son, Prince Charles, claimed in early March that the world’s oldest sitting monarch was “much better now.”
ATS
