‘It leaves one exhausted’: The Queen shares her Covid experience with NHS staff and patients
The Queen has spoken of how Covid leaves “one very tired and exhausted” in a video call with NHS staff and former patients, where she reflected on the impact that “this horrible pandemic” has had.
The monarch tested positive for Covid in late February, shortly after Prince Charles also contracted the illness. At the time, she was described as having “mild cold-like symptoms”, and returned to “light duties” just nine days after testing positive.
However, when talking to a former Covid patient on a virtual visit to open the Royal London Hospital’s Queen Elizabeth Unit she said that Covid had left her “very tired and exhausted”. “It's not a nice result”, she said.
She spoke to Asef Hussain, a former Covid patient who told her about how his brother and father died of the disease, while he himself was on a ventilator.
Mr Hussain described how his recovery had taken a long time, and how he still brings an oxygen machine around with him over a year after catching the disease. The Queen remarked how back in 2020 when Mr Hussain caught the illness, “It was the bad version, wasn’t it?”
The Queen heard how 500 people around the world had joined a prayer on Zoom for Mr Hussain, to which she replied: “Praying for him, oh wonderful”.
She also reflected on the “Dunkirk spirit” shown by the staff working under trying conditions during the pandemic, saying: “Thank goodness it still exists”.
“It is very interesting isn’t it, when there’s some very vital thing, how everybody works together and pulls together. Marvellous, isn’t it."
She was told of how the 155-bed critical care unit was constructed in just five weeks to deal with the huge number of patients during the pandemic. The Queen remarked that: “It’s amazing, isn’t it, what can be done when needs be”, and described the efforts of the medical staff as “splendid”.
The plaque was unveiled and held up to the camera to show the monarch, who was calling in from Windsor Castle and wearing a floral dress with a pearl necklace.
The video call was not the Queen’s first engagement at the hospital. After a 1990 visit by the monarch it was afforded its “royal” status. She visited survivors of the 2005 7/7 terrorist attacks there, and visited again in 2013 to open a new hospital building.
Since recovering from Covid, the Queen has undertaken several virtual engagements. Last week she held virtual audiences with ambassadors from Libya and the Republic of Congo, who came to Buckingham Palace while she appeared via video link from Windsor Castle.
She has also attended public engagements at home.
At the end of March, Staffordshire pottery Halcyon Days brought a display of teapots and trinket boxes to her at Windsor Castle, after a planned 2020 visit to their factory had to be cancelled because of the pandemic.
She has also attended in-person events since her recovery, including a memorial service for her late husband Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey at the end of last month.
