Prince Philip funeral: With COVID-19 restrictions, can Prince Harry, Meghan attend the services?

Update

4 p.m. ET April 11, 2021: Prince Harry will attend Prince Philip’s funeral, but his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is pregnant and has been advised by her doctor not to make the journey.

Original story:

On the death of Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, a funeral plan that has been in the making for years went into effect.

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After a period of mourning, a service will be held at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, and his burial will take place at Frogmore Gardens, a cemetery used by the British Royal Family.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic, a national lockdown has been in place since the start of January in England and Scotland, and the rules for the lockdown severely restrict the size of funerals and who can leave quarantine to attend one.

With those rules in place, speculation began appearing on social media on Friday morning as to whether Prince Harry, the grandson of Prince Philip, can attend the funeral.

Harry and his wife, Meghan, left behind royal duties and their home in the United Kingdom to move to the United States in early 2020 with their son, Archie.

With Meghan pregnant with the couple’s second child and a global pandemic that appears to be on the verge of surging into another wave of infections in Europe and the U.K., can the couple even go to England now to attend a funeral?

According to Gov.UK, “If you have traveled to England from any country that is not exempt from the requirement to self-isolate, you are required to self-isolate from arrival and for the first full 10 days after you arrive.

“However, you can leave your place of self-isolation in limited circumstances, including on compassionate grounds. This includes attending a funeral of a household member, a close family member or a friend,” the website explained.

In addition, the U.K. requires that anyone entering the country have proof of a recent negative coronavirus test. You must also get two coronavirus tests after you arrive in England.

You cannot enter the U.K. if you’ve been in or through the countries on the banned travel list within the last 10 days, health officials say, unless you’re British, Irish or you have the right to live in the U.K.

The United States is not on the banned travel list.

Per COVID-19 restrictions, only 30 people are allowed to attend Prince Philip’s funeral. The funeral is set for April 17, or eight days from day he died.

While the required quarantine period is for 10 days, an accelerated timeframe is possible due to the compassionate grounds provision.

That means it is likely that either Harry or Meghan or both could travel to the United Kingdom and be able to attend Prince Philip’s funeral.


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