VIRUS SCARE
Coronavirus-hit Prince Albert of Monaco, 62, met Prince Charles last week and says he ‘caught it speaking to someone’
CORONAVIRUS-stricken Prince Albert of Monaco has admitted he could've been infected by "someone less than three or four feet away" days after he met Prince Charles.
The 62-year-old ruler tested positive just nine days after he sat opposite the Prince of Wales at a WaterAid event in London.
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Albert told his tiny nation he could’ve contracted the virus "at any point in the last ten days or so."
The monarch said he had been taking precautionary measures such as using hand sanitiser for weeks, in a statement to .
Prince Charles, 71, has avoided shaking hands with members of the public in recent weeks, and has instead opted to adopt the namaste greeting.
Authorities in Monaco said the ruler, who previously suffered from pneumonia, is being monitored by a personal doctor and specialists from the Princess Grace Hospital Centre, which is named after his late mother Grace Kelly.
Just two days before testing positive Prince Albert addressed the people of the principality on the French Riviera to speak about the killer virus sweeping through Europe.
The 62-year-old also asked any group activities – whether indoor or outdoor – to be postponed in order to limit all contacts to within the immediate family.
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The Monaco Grand Prix has already been cancelled along with several other events on the Formula One calendar because of virus fears.
Prince Albert said the no-nonsense measures were necessary and essential in order to face the worrying pandemic.
The upmarket tax haven, where one in three people are believed to be millionaires, has fewer than a dozen cases of coronavirus.
But many people who work there live over the border in France and commute in each day.
It is unclear whether Albert’s wife Princess Charlene - a former Olympic swimmer - has been tested for the deadly disease.
In a statement released yesterday, the Queen admitted Britain was entering a time of "great concern and uncertainty".
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She said: "We are all being advised to change our normal routines and regular patterns of life for the greater good of the communities we live in and, in particular, to protect the most vulnerable within them.
"At times such as these, I am reminded that our nation’s history has been forged by people and communities coming together to work as one, concentrating our combined efforts with a focus on the common goal.”
This comes as the Queen and her husband Prince Philip, 98, headed to Windsor a week early - expected to stay at the castle past Easter as the elderly were warned to self-isolate.
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