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Danish queen tests positive after UK monarch's funeral

05:55 PM Sep 21, 2022 | PTI |

Copenhagen: Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II has tested positive for the coronavirus after attending the funeral of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, the royal palace said Wednesday. In a statement, the royal household said that Margrethe, 82, who has been on the throne for 50 years, cancelled her official duties after the Tuesday night test.

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The palace said her oldest son, heir to the throne Crown Prince Frederik, and his wife, Crown Princess Mary, would take the queen’s place by hosting a dinner with Danish government officials and members of parliament.

Margrethe previously tested positive for the virus in February. At the time, the palace said she had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The queen was among the dignitaries who attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral Monday at Westminster Abbey in London.

Margrethe’s half-century reign makes her Europe’s longest-serving monarch following the Sept. 8 death of Elizabeth, 96, who ruled for 70 years.

Out of respect for the late British monarch, Margrethe had asked her court to adjust the Sept. 10-11 program for her own 50-year anniversary commemorations.

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Among the events she canceled at short notice was appearing on the Amalienborg Palace balcony to greet well-wishers and a ride in a horse-drawn carriage through Copenhagen.

Margrethe was proclaimed queen on Jan. 15, 1972, a day after her father, King Frederik IX, died following a short illness.

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