During a conversation with a former coronavirus patient whose brother and father perished from the illness, Queen Elizabeth stated she was tired and exhausted after a recent COVID-19 infection.
The 95-year-old monarch, who is triple-vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19 in February and experienced “mild cold-like symptoms,” according to Buckingham Palace. She will perform light duties at Windsor for the rest of the week, according to the palace.
The queen made the statement during a virtual visit to the Royal London Hospital’s Queen Elizabeth Unit on Wednesday. She met with workers and patients who had been in the facility during the pandemic, including Asef Hussain, a former COVID-19 patient whose brother and father died in December 2020 after contracting the virus.
Speaking to the construction team who built the 155-bed Queen Elizabeth Unit on the hospital’s 14th and 15th floors in five weeks, rather than the usual five months, she said: “It is very interesting, isn’t it, when there is some very vital thing, how everybody works together and pulls together? Marvelous, isn’t it?”
According to CNN, she used a cane in public for the first time since 2003 at a church service in October. Hussain spent seven weeks on a ventilator. He has been using a portable oxygen machine since his release from the hospital.
“It does leave one very tired and exhausted, doesn’t it? This horrible pandemic. It’s not a nice result,” the queen told the former patient. The new facility was built to meet the growing demands brought on by the pandemic.
As per Yahoo, in recent months, the queen’s health has been questioned. She was admitted to the hospital in October and has scaled back her responsibilities, canceling certain in-person events and handing over some duties to Prince Charles.
Last week, the palace revealed that she would miss the Royal Maundy Service, an Easter week event at Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Chapel and that Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, would take her place.
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