Prince Charles, the 71-year-old heir to the British throne, has tested positive for coronavirus — the first member of the British royal family to have contracted the disease.
“The Prince of Wales has tested positive for coronavirus. He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual,” The prince’s Clarence House office said in a statement.
Clarence House added that “it is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks,” and that Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, “are now self-isolating at home in Scotland.” Camilla has been tested and does not have the virus.
Buckingham Palace said that Queen Elizabeth II last saw her son on March 12, but “remains in good health” and is “following all the appropriate advice with regard to her welfare.”
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that the country was implementing an almost-complete lockdown of the country for three weeks, after a slow initial response to the growing coronavirus pandemic.
“No prime minister wants to enact measures like this,” Johnson said in announcing the restrictions. “I know the damage that this disruption is doing and will do to people’s lives, to their businesses, and to their jobs.”
As of Wednesday, the U.K. had over 8,000 cases and 422 deaths.