Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is postponing engagements in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Buckingham Palace said in a statement Friday.
The 93-year-old monarch’s diary is being rearranged “as a sensible precaution and for practical reasons in the current circumstances,” the statement said.
Her planned visits to Cheshire, in the northwest of England, and Camden in north London are being rescheduled, the palace added, but the Queen’s audiences with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will continue as normal.
The changes affect the Queen’s diary in the “coming weeks,” and other events “will be reviewed on an ongoing basis in line with the appropriate advice,” the statement said.
The announcement comes as Britain moves into the “delay” phase of its coronavirus response and scores of public events are canceled around the country.
Earlier on Friday, Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, announced they were canceling their spring tour due to the escalating coronavirus pandemic.
The pair were set to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Jordan but have postponed those trips.
Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people around the world.
In the UK, nearly 800 people have tested positive, though the government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said on Thursday it was possible that the true number of infections was around 5,000 to 10,000.
