Prince Charles tests positive for COVID, again, heads off to isolation

Britain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for COVID-19 for a second time and is in self-isolation, his office revealed Thursday.

He’s “deeply disappointed not to be able to attend today’s events in Winchester and will look to reschedule his visit as soon as possible,” Clarence House wrote in a tweet.

The announcement comes a day after the 73-year-old prince of Wales attended a reception for the British Asian Trust alongside his wife, Camilla, duchess of Cornwall, according to Wednesday tweets from Clarence House. He met scores of people at the event, held in the British Museum in London that evening, where he spoke about the “devastating impact” the pandemic has had on South Asia.

Among the guests in attendance were British Home Secretary Priti Patel and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak. Photos shared on social media show Charles posing alongside the high-profile officials.

“I cannot quite believe it is almost two years to the day that both my mehabooba and myself were able to be with all of you to celebrate the work of the British Asian Trust,” he said at the event, using his pet name for Camilla, the Urdu word for “darling.”

“Since then, there has been great loss of life,” Charles added.

Clarence House confirmed that the British heir apparent has been triple-vaccinated.

The royal previously tested positive for coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020. His office later said he experienced only mild COVID-19 symptoms at the time — including loss of taste and smell — during seven days of isolation at his Balmoral Estate in Scotland.

“I was lucky in my case … but I’ve had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through,” Charles told Sky News at the time. “I feel particularly for those who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That, to me, is the most ghastly thing.”

The prince’s current condition was not immediately clear.

It’s also unknown whether he’d recently been near his 95-year-old mother, Queen Elizabeth, who celebrated her Platinum Jubilee on Sunday. She marked the occasion by expressing her hope that Camilla will one day be known as queen consort when Charles becomes king.

Spain’s King Felipe, 54, and Denmark’s Queen Margrethe, 81, also tested positive for the coronavirus this week.