THE QUEEN: Virus will not stop me doing my duty
She leads by example and vows to do her duty
THE Queen has vowed to not let the coronavirus outbreak stop her performing her duties – as Government officials discuss how best to protect senior Royals from the bug.
The Monarch, who is 93, will attend the Commonwealth Day service in Westminster Abbey tomorrow with eight members of the Royal Family and mix with people from 54 countries.
A Palace source said the Queen was determined to set an example by ‘keeping calm and carrying on’ until there was ‘advice to the contrary’.
However, if the virus spreads, Whitehall experts have suggested the Queen should cancel her garden parties, which start in May, when the epidemic is predicted to be near its peak.
In such a scenario, the Queen would be likely to operate with a reduced staff and to relocate to Sandringham or Balmoral to limit the risk of infection.
The number of Covid-19 cases hit 206 in the UK, a rise of 43 since Friday. Five more Scots patients have been diagnosed, bringing the total to 16.
The Scottish Government said two new cases had been reported in Lanarkshire, with the others in Lothian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Grampian. It comes as:
Scottish health chiefs are to deploy an army of ‘swab squad’ medics – in protective gear – to visit suspected patients in their own homes and test them for the virus;
Heads of the major sporting bodies prepared for talks with Ministers tomorrow to discuss the feasibility of either cancelling events or holding them behind closed doors;
Ministers held discussions with leading supermarkets to prioritise food deliveries to ‘hot spot’ infection areas;
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced an emergency Bill will sanction video hearings in courts and give employment protection to the three-million-strong army of volunteers who help the NHS;
Boris Johnson prepared to chair an emergency meeting of the Government’s Cobra committee tomorrow to discuss the optimum time to change strategy from trying to contain the virus to delaying its transmission so the outbreak peaks in the summer months;
Chancellor Rishi Sunak ‘stands ready to give the NHS whatever it needs’ when he delivers his first Budget on Wednesday, as he also plans to support businesses that may face cashflow problems due to the outbreak;
US Vice-President Mike Pence said quarantined cruise ship The Grand Princess – which is carrying 3,500 people, including 140 Britons off the Californian coast – had been directed to an undisclosed ‘noncommercial port’ after 21 people on board tested positive;
Staff levels on the NHS’s non-emergency 111 line will be boosted by a fifth, after an extra 120,000 calls last week;
A leading microbiologist warned that Britain’s epidemic is expected to hit its peak at Easter, throwing school holiday plans for hundreds of thousands of families into chaos;
A German scientist revealed that Covid-19 can survive on surfaces for far longer than previously thought – up to nine days on plastic and five days on glass, metal and wood;
Pope Francis will deliver Sunday prayers by a live stream over the internet as Italy battles the worst outbreak in Europe, with 233 deaths;
There was optimism China has tamed its outbreak after it reduced the number of new cases to just 102 yesterday;
Last night, courtiers were adamant that the Queen and other senior Royals would continue to carry out their duties, including overseas tours.
They insist the Queen would follow Government advice about if and when she should self-isolate, while the Duke of Edinburgh, 98, will continue to live at Sandringham. A congregation of 2,000 is expected at tomorrow’s service, including the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
A source said: ‘It is thought that if the Queen or senior members of the Royal Family were to self-isolate or change plans it might spark panic in the general population.’
Another source said: ‘The Queen didn’t change her schedule during the swine flu outbreak and has never changed her schedule after terrorist attacks. It’s business as usual.’
Buckingham Palace said: ‘We are following current Government advice. We would not speculate on what that advice might be in the future.’
Environment Secretary George Eustice will meet retailers tomorrow to discuss identifying Covid-19 ‘hot spots’ where supplies may be stockpiled. They will also discuss support for vulnerable groups.
The risk of dying from the virus rises steeply with age: while the overall death rate is 2.3 per cent, it goes up to 14.8 per cent among the over-80s.
The family of the second person to have died of coronavirus in the UK paid tribute yesterday to a ‘truly loving and wonderful’ husband, dad, grandad and great-grandad.
They said they could not yet make funeral arrangements for the 83-year-old because they are in isolation.
‘It’s business as usual for the Royal Family’
DESPITE our best efforts to prove otherwise, the coronavirus is making some of us consider that we might, in fact, be old. At a party last week for the launch of therapist Julia Samuel’s book This Too Shall Pass (a title that hopefully will apply to Covid19 as well as the difficult life transitions it addresses), the room was filled with cheery members of the 60-plus age group.
We were a pretty lively and not bad-looking bunch (the winner by a mile was Tom Stoppard, who’s well into his 80s). Old, us? You must be joking. Yet the chief conversational topic was how many of us were members of a susceptible demographic – though that didn’t stop the kissing, the hugs or the handshakes.
Aside from the fact that discussion of the virus is in danger of killing off interesting chat at any social gathering, we’ve done a pretty good job of not being old. Not really old. It’s not just the cosmetic interventions and hair dye but how we spend our time. The music business is bankrolled by old rockers swaying to other old rockers, we’re beginning so many new sexual relationships that the biggest rise in STD’s is in the over-65s and it’s not unusual, if you’re a bloke, to become a father in your eighth decade. As an old dad-to-be, Boris is a stripling at 55.
Unfortunately, though, it appears this nasty new virus hasn’t got the memo and is cutting into our carefully honed perception of ourselves as age invincible.
It’s no respecter of how satisfactory our highlights are or whether we can still run a mean 10K and rack up the sun salutations with the best of them. We know that age is just a number. But coronavirus is making it just that bit harder to avoid the fact that one day the time will come when that number’s up.
Princess Haya is a beacon of bravery
BRAVEST woman of the week is Princess Haya – the ex-wife of Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum. I can’t think of anything much more terrifying than successfully revealing her husband’s appalling behaviour, including kidnap and torture, in the High Court. Princess Haya may be possessed of millions of pounds but all the money in the world won’t help when you wake up in the middle of the night scared for you and your children’s lives. Especially when the man you are confronted with is one whose total belief in his omnipotency is matched
only by his ruthlessness.
Life lessons from a Labour lady in a lift
LAST week I found myself in the lift of Fortnum & Mason with two other women, heading up to a charity lunch for Cancer Research. One was Labour’s Jess Phillips who had agreed to interview LBC host Nick Ferrari on stage as of part of the event. Whenever the lift stopped at a floor, the other woman impatiently pressed the button to get it moving again so we could get to our destination. ‘There’s no point doing that,’ said Jess, who I only realised was Jess once we’d all left the lift. ‘I know because my husband’s a lift engineer.’ She continued: ‘It won’t make any difference. It just makes you feel better because you think you’re doing something.’ She was completely right. It’s exactly how I feel about having cast my vote in the Labour leadership ballot. This Vampire’s Wife is never going to die...
EVERY now and again a dress comes along that defies the deathknell of over-exposure and, with every sighting, just becomes more popular.
That dress is now the Falconetti by Susie Bick – aka The Vampire’s Wife, worn last week as part of the Duchess of Cambridge’s turn as the Green Goddess, during her visit to Ireland. The Falconetti is one of the several nearly-identical VW dresses sporting high necklines, puffed shoulders and flounced hems that have been making an appearance at glamorous parties, premieres and weddings for the past couple of years. Couple of years? Most high-fashion buys are lucky to keep their currency for more than six months but these have the same long-life formula as Roland Mouret’s famous figure-hugging Galaxy dress a decade ago. Even costing upwards of £1,000 a pop.
And why? The secret, say those who wear them, is that the dresses’ clever seaming gives you the narrow waist and bust you wished you had while the sleeves and skirt have the requisite primness popular in fashion now. I wish I could tell you more about why it’s so loved but I’ve tried, more than once, to wear one. And I’ve had to admit defeat.
Unlike Gillian Anderson, Alexa Chung and Goth Queen Susie Bick herself – who’ve all been seen looking gorgeous in the dress recently – on me the shape and fabric looks less sexy puritan and more comfy sofa upholstery. Not that with continuing huge sales, this revelation is going to give The Vampire’s Wife any sleepless nights.
Why we all love a baddie in a beanie
ARCH-manipulators are so fascinating, aren’t they? Which is surely a huge part of the appeal of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. You may or may not like Dominic Cummings’s way with a beanie hat but it’s a fact that most of us are intrigued by him – and the enormous influence he seems to hold over the Prime Minister.
The éminence grise, who lurks in the shadow of power, is almost always a far more compelling character than the leader themselves. There’s something about the way their manoeuvrings take place under the official radar that lends them a thrill that their supposed masters lack.
But the real lure is that we’re convinced they’re baddies, cynical Machiavellis conspiring and conniving to get their evil way. Whereas the good guys? They’re not nearly as much fun.
Keep calm and carry on baking brownies
I’M SURE we’re not the only household who have turned to baking as solace over the past week of relentless rain and coronavirus obsession.
The smell of straight-from-theoven brownies is a delicious panacea. Forget stockpiling loo paper and pasta, I suggest making sure you’ve got a good supply of baking ingredients should isolation strike.