LONDON – British Queen Elizabeth II (94) and her husband, Prince Philip (99), have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, Buckingham Palace officials said on Saturday.
The royal family rarely comments on the health of the monarch or her family members, but says the announcement was made to avoid inaccuracies or speculation.
“The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh received Covid-19 vaccinations today,” a Buckingham Palace spokesman said in a statement.
The pandemic has toppled the UK.
It has the highest death rate in Europe – just over 81,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University data – and is amid severe social restrictions as hospitals say they are overwhelmed.
The emergence in the UK of a more contagious mutant strain of Covid-19 has also led to an increase in cases.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accelerated vaccination efforts this week, with the elderly and the vulnerable among the priority groups. On Tuesday, Johnson said it was over 1.3 million people in the UK vaccinated.
It is not known what vaccine the queen and her husband received.
The vaccination of British drugmaker AstraZeneca, done in collaboration with Oxford University in the UK, received regulatory approval in December, while the UK made headlines worldwide when it became the first Western country to launch the Pfizer. BioNTech vaccine started earlier that month.
The British regulators on Friday approved a third vaccine by Moderna, but said it would only be available in the spring.
Download the NBC News app for recent news and politics
Last year, Queen Elizabeth encouraged her subjects to show the same ‘quiet, moody intent’ that characterized previous generations, in a rare television speech meant to gather the spirit of the country.
The royal family was not yet immune to the virus, and the son of the queen and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, tested positive for Covid-19 in March last year, but recovered quickly.
Charles’ son, Prince William, and his wife, Kate, were vocal pursuing the national health service. Kate, who celebrated her 39th birthday on Friday tweeted her support for those on the front lines.
The lives of the royals have recently attracted interest again, as many locked-in viewers have introduced the season four of the Netflix series “The Crown”.
Princess Diana caused a stir in the series for the first time when British politicians encouraged Netflix to make it clear that the program is fiction.
