(London) After being put to rest by her doctors, Queen Elizabeth II, 95, spent the night from Wednesday to Thursday in hospital to undergo examinations presented as “preliminary” by Buckingham Palace.
While she is due to celebrate her 70 years on the throne in 2022, the sovereign continues to show good form and her hospitalizations made public are extremely rare. The last dates back to 2013, when she spent 24 hours in the hospital with gastroenteritis, and the previous one ten years earlier.
“Following the medical advice recommending her to rest for a few days, the Queen went to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon for preliminary examinations and returned to Windsor Castle at lunch time” Thursday, the palace wrote in a brief statement.
She “keeps good morale,” he added.
Despite her age, the death of her husband Philip in April and the COVID-19 pandemic, the British sovereign continues to tirelessly participate in public events.
She appeared again Tuesday at a reception at Windsor Castle, near London, in the presence of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, businessman Bill Gates or US climate envoy John Kerry. Visibly in good shape, she shook hands without gloves and stood chatting with the guests, without a mask.
But on Wednesday, she had canceled a visit to Northern Ireland after “reluctantly accepting” her doctors’ advice to rest.
According to British media, the Queen’s brief hospitalization in recent hours took place at the private Edward VII Hospital in central London, where her husband Philip had been hospitalized several times before her death.
Her stay in the hospital was to be limited to consultations with specialists, but it was decided that she would stay there overnight for “practical” reasons, according to the PA news agency, which specifies that she returned. from Thursday to his office for “light tasks”.
According to the same source, his time in the hospital was supposed to be kept a secret, but was made public when the tabloid The Sun mentioned it.
On Wednesday, PA had clarified that the queen was not suffering from COVID-19, while the rates of contamination are among the highest in the world in the United Kingdom. She is vaccinated.
Busy agenda
The sovereign holds the record for longevity on the British throne, which she acceded almost 70 years ago, in 1952. Besides her rare previous hospitalizations, she is not known to have any health problems, but she must have missed a visit. in January 2020 due to a mild cold. We still saw her riding a pony a few months ago.
Despite regular speculation about a withdrawal, especially after the death in April of her husband Philip at the age of 99, the head of state of 16 Kingdoms continues to participate in numerous events in public.
If she no longer travels abroad and is represented there by the heir to the crown, Prince Charles, her son, she participated in the G7 Summit by receiving US President Joe Biden in June, hands over decorations and receives new ambassadors to the UK, sometimes by videoconference.
Since her return from her Scottish castle of Balmoral in early October, Elizabeth II has participated almost daily in public engagements. She notably attended a mass at Westminster Abbey on the 12th, delivered a speech in Cardiff, Wales on the 14th, or attended horse races, her passion, on the 16th in Ascot, near Windsor.
In Westminster last week, Elizabeth II was seen walking in public with a cane, a first since 2004.
The sovereign is expected at the UN climate conference at COP26 in early November in Glasgow, Scotland.
Tuesday, the British magazine The Oldie had indicated that the queen had refused the prize which he gives each year to an elderly person: “His Majesty thinks that we are of the age that we feel and therefore does not think they meet the criteria to accept”, had indicated his services in the refusal letter.