September 21, (THEWILL) – Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has tested positive for COVID-19, after attending the funeral of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, the Danish royal palace said on Wednesday.
The 82-year-old is resting at the Fredensborg Palace, 30 kilometres north of Copenhagen, and her engagements for the week have been cancelled, the Palace added in a statement.
Margarethe sat in the first row of foreign royals at the funeral service for the queen at Westminster Abbey in London, alongside her son, Frederik and two Swedish royals.
Sitting directly opposite her on the other side of the coffin was the new British King Charles III.
The royal household said in a statement that Margrethe, who has been on the throne for 50 years, cancelled her official duties after the Tuesday night test.
Her oldest son, the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Frederik, and his wife, Crown Princess Mary, would take the queen’s place, hosting a dinner with Danish government officials and members of parliament, the palace said.
Queen Margrethe previously tested positive for the virus in February. At the time, the palace said she had received three doses of a Covid vaccine.
Her half-century reign makes her Europe’s longest-serving monarch after the September 8 death of Queen Elizabeth, 96, who ruled for 70 years.
Out of respect for the late British monarch, she had asked her court to adjust the September 10-11 programme for her own 50-year anniversary commemorations.
She was proclaimed queen on January 15, 1972, a day after her father, King Frederik IX, died after a short illness.
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