COVID-19 Pandemic Halt Queen Elizabeth’s 94th Birthday Celebration

With current health, situation of many British citizens, the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s 94th birthday was halted today as the traditional gun salute was called off this year.

Naija News Understands that Britain’s Elizabeth II, the world’s eldest and longest-reigning monarch, typically spends her birthday privately without much public celebration but this year the event will be even more muted.

The monarch was said to be marking the occasion with her 98-year-old husband, Prince Philip, at Windsor Castle, west of London.

Royal birthdays and anniversaries are traditionally marked by ceremonial gun salutes, in which blank rounds are fired from various locations across London, but the queen felt it would be inappropriate to allow this to go ahead given the circumstances.

The latest official figures show that about 16,000 Britons infected with the new coronavirus have died in hospital, the fifth highest number globally. The nation is in its fourth week of lockdown, with most businesses closed and citizens ordered to stay at home.

The couple, whose age puts them in a high-risk category for COVID-19, have been following the government’s lockdown orders and maintaining social distancing rules during the pandemic.

Other senior royals have been housebound at their residences around Britain, so publicly wished the queen a happy birthday on social media instead.