Queen carries out first official engagements since Covid scare
The Queen has carried out her first official engagements since she faced a Covid-scare.
The 95-year-old monarch held two virtual audiences from Windsor Castle via video link on Tuesday with the Estonian and Spanish ambassadors.
She was pictured greeting the Estonian ambassador to the UK Viljar Lubi, who spoke to her through a computer screen at Buckingham Palace, along with the Spanish ambassador Jose Pascual Marco Martinez.
It is the first time the Queen has been photographed, albeit on a screen, since she reached her historic Platinum Jubilee milestone just over a week ago, and endorsed her daughter-in-law the Duchess of Cornwall to be known as Queen when Charles becomes King.
Concern mounted for the head of state’s health after she met with eldest son the Prince of Wales a week ago, two days before he tested positive for coronavirus.
Buckingham Palace has continued to refuse to confirm whether the Queen had tested positive or negative for Covid, citing medical privacy.
But the palace confirmed last week that she was not displaying any symptoms.
The Queen, wearing a floral dress, could be seen on screen as she spoke by video link with Mr Lubi, who travelled to Buckingham Palace for his audience.
He presented his credentials and his predecessor’s letters of recall to the Queen, placing them on an antique wooden table in front of the flat screen monitor.
Mr Lubi was accompanied by Maarja Junti, who was also received by the monarch.
Spanish ambassador Jose Pascual Marco Martinez, who was dressed in diplomatic uniform, also presented his letters of credence at the second audience.
He was accompanied by his wife Geraldine Dufort.
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The monarch, seated in her Oak Room sitting room, has spent most of the pandemic at Windsor, where she was cared for in lockdown in HMS Bubble, the nickname given to her reduced household of dedicated staff.
Along with Prince Charles, Camilla has also caught Covid, with Clarence House confirming four days after the prince tested positive that the 74-year-old duchess had contracted the virus and was self-isolating.
The monarch will have taken daily lateral flow tests over the past seven days, in keeping with current guidelines, and will have been closely monitored by her royal physicians.