Queen Elizabeth Makes First In-Person Appearance Since COVID-19 Diagnosis

Queen Elizabeth on Monday made her first in-person appearance since Buckingham Palace announced that she tested positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 20.

The British monarch, who turns 96 next month, met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Windsor Castle, where she now resides.

Trudeau said after the meeting that he “was able to talk about the situations we are facing and draw on her long experience from having seen much over these past decades.”

“I have had the privilege of knowing Her Majesty for about 45 years now, and I can tell you that in my meeting with her this morning, she was as insightful and perspicacious as ever,” Trudeau told reporters during a London news conference with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “We had a really useful conversation about global events, as we always do.”

The queen has other in-person events scheduled later this month, though a Buckingham Palace spokesperson wouldn’t elaborate to HuffPost on Monday about her future engagements.

Blue and yellow flowers shown behind the queen and Trudeau in photos of their meeting were in honor of Ukraine, according to Roya Nikkhah, royal editor of the U.K.’s Sunday Times.

“Royal sources confirm they are a deliberate sign of Her Majesty’s support and that ‘very little tends to happen by accident,’” Nikkhah tweeted on Monday.

The queen made a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal last week amid Russia’s invasion of the country.

Nikkhah was the first to report that the queen was giving up her main residence of Buckingham Palace to live permanently at Windsor Castle, where she resided for most of the pandemic with her late husband, Prince Philip.

Buckingham Palace announced that the queen was “experiencing mild cold like symptoms,” in a statement revealing her COVID-19 diagnosis in February, just days after both Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, also tested positive.

The queen resumed virtual appearances last week after previously canceling some engagements due to her health. Despite the cancelations, Buckingham Palace said the queen was well enough to hold her weekly audience with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a revelation that silenced false rumors of her death amid her illness.

The U.S.-based blog Hollywood Unlocked started the rumors after sharing a fake “exclusive” claiming that Queen Elizabeth was dead on Feb. 22. Though the palace didn’t acknowledge the report at the time, it relayed information about the queen’s call with Johnson the next day.

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