The restless Queen Elizabeth, after the troubles of Andrew and Harry, the latest challenge is Covid

Buckingham Palace: “He has mild symptoms and will continue to work.” The infection could have started from a family member. Johnson’s greetings via Twitter

Queen Elizabeth has Covid and now everyone is hoping it will recover quickly, and that the virus has finally met someone who will fix it. Symptoms are mild, just a few coughs. But the Sovereign’s personal physician, Sir Huw Thomas, immediately rushed to Windsor Castle and consulted the best specialists. Elizabeth, who will turn 96 in April, is one of the best cared for people in the world and it turned out that she was positive immediately after the infection.

The British newspapers obviously question who could have transmitted the virus to her in the Windsor isolation, and the suspects are many. It could have been some of the staff, but also her son Carlo, who met her on February 8, three days before discovering, to her misfortune, that she had contracted Covid for the second time. On February 14, his wife Camilla also tested positive. Elizabeth, in recent weeks, has also often received her son Andrea, to discuss with him the issue of the 12 million dollars that the prince must pay to Virginia Roberts, the woman who accuses him of raping her when she was a minor, to prevent you drag him to a courtroom.

Since moving to Windsor in the height of the pandemic, the Queen has been waiting her turn for the three vaccinations, only agreeing to receive them when other people her age did. She was then protected by a bubble that included a total of 24 servants and collaborators, divided into two teams of 12, who were forbidden to meet other people, including family members, and worked in alternating three-week shifts. But controls and isolation weren’t enough. Since her staff is monitored closely, it is therefore thought that one of her family members, who came and went with greater freedom, was believed to have infected her.

The years begin to weigh on the Queen as well. In October she had spent a night in the hospital, in November she had given up attending the Remembrance Day ceremonies for those who fell in the wars and then, for the first time, she had leaned on a cane during a religious service in the Abbey. of Westminster. A few days ago, on receiving the new Secretary of Defense, General Eldon Millar, she had again used the cane and pointed to her right leg. “I can’t move,” she had said as she greeted him. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, instead of making a phone call or sending a note, posted a tweet in which he hopes for a quick return “to a vibrant good health”. While waiting, Elizabeth has already returned to work: she examines the government papers and sent congratulatory and thank-you telegrams to Team GB of the Beijing Olympics.

Covid, even in the mildest form of Omicron, is always dangerous for those over 90, but in recent days it has been felt that contagion is not Elizabeth’s main concern. The Queen’s relatives are said to have spent a weekend of fire. Starting with Andrea, who hhe asked his mother for financial help for the agreement that her lawyers reached with Virginia Roberts, no longer so determined to drag the prince to court to prove that no one is superior to the law: who has money is. A nursery rhyme is already circulating in Windsor, about the prince who spends his treasure of 12 million to compensate a woman he does not know and to whom he has never done anything wrong, as he had often repeated in recent months.

But the troubles of the third child were not enough. The eldest son is also in trouble, as Scotland Yard has opened an investigation into the granting of citizenship and honors to Saudi Arabia Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, in exchange for funding for Charles’s foundation. The heir to the throne could be questioned by the police, because the resignation of Michael Fawcett, his historical secretary, was not enough to make him believe that he knew nothing about it. Harry is also in trouble, due to the tough confrontation with the police that the Duke of Sussex accuses of not wanting to protect his family in case he decides to return to visit Britain.

Elisabetta can’t take it anymore: with Philip’s death, Covid and the continuing problems caused around her, this last year has proved to be much worse than the 1992 Annus Horribilis. Her relatives, on every birthday, always wonder what what to give her. For April 21, the choice is easy: they could give her some peace of mind, but it is difficult for them to be capable of it.