CORONAVIRUS

Prince Charles Is Out of Self-Isolation After Just a Week

Camilla Parker Bowles does not have the coronavirus, but will remain quarantined for another week.

March 30, 2020

Mark Cuthbert/Getty Images

Increasingly, royals around the world are discovering that they are not immune to the threat of the coronavirus. Over the weekend, Princess Maria Teresa de Borbón-Parma of Spain became the first royal to die of the virus. Meanwhile, Prince Albert II of Monaco is currently recovering from the virus, as is Prince Charles, the 71-year-old heir to the British throne. (Prince William is next in line, followed by his and Kate Middleton’s six-year-old son, Prince George.)

News of Charles’s positive diagnosis came nearly a week after Albert’s. And yet, Charles, who was said to have only mild symptoms, seems to be making a speedier recovery. “Clarence House has confirmed today that, having consulted with his doctor, the Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation,” a spokesperson told the BBC on Monday. They did not specify whether Charles has since tested negative, or no longer has a fever.

Seven days might seem a bit lax, but it’s actually in keeping with the British government’s official guidelines, which require people with symptoms to stay at home for seven days. Others in their household without symptoms must stay home for 14 days, hence why Charles’s 72-year-old wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, will remain in self-isolation until the end of this week. Presumably, that will still be at Birkhall, the Balmoral estate in the Scottish highlands where she and Charles had been separately spending their quarantine. (And, in Camilla’s case, getting acquainted with the app Houseparty.)

It’s unclear where Charles will be spending his newfound freedom. But out of caution, hopefully he’ll be keeping his distance from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who’s at great risk of contracting the virus at age 93. She has already been exposed to several people who have tested positive with the virus, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Buckingham Palace has not confirmed reports that one of her footmen has the virus, though after news broke of Johnson last week, it did assure that the queen “remains in good health.”