Queen Elizabeth II cancels events due to coronavirus

Image from Wikimedia Commons

The Royal Household has made drastic measures to keep Queen Elizabeth II safe with the deadly outbreak of coronavirus. An announcement made on the Royal Family’s website shows a number of changes on the Queen’s diary as a “sensible precaution.”

Among others, here are the changes on the Queen’s schedules:

• The Queen will continue to hold audiences this week as scheduled. She will continue to receive Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Commanding Officer of HMS Queen Elizabeth and the Bishop of Hereford. However, future audiences will be frequently reviewed.
• The Queen will be transferred to Windsor Castle. With this, Easter period will begin on Thursday March 19, earlier than scheduled. The Queen will remain there for an extended period.
• A  number of public events with large numbers of people, usually attended by the Queen, and other members of the Royal Family, such as the annual garden parties at the royal residences, will be cancelled. Guests invited to these garden parties will be asked, instead, to attend in 2021.
• The annual Maundy Service at St George’s Chapel on April 9 is also cancelled.  
• Investitures will be rearranged to later dates.
• Further announcements on Trooping the Colour, the 75th anniversary of VE Day and the state visit by the Emperor and Empress of Japan will be made in due course, in consultation with government.