JAKARTA - The leader of Britain's longest-running monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II, canceled her 94th birthday celebrations. Queen Elizabeth's birthday falls on Tuesday 21 April.
The royal government has asked not to do gun salutes to mark the anniversary because it is considered inappropriate. Moreover, Britain is fighting the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
The UK is sixth in the world with the most cases of COVID-19. There are 16,000 people who have reportedly died out of the 120,000 COVID-19 cases in the UK.
Launched by Reuters, Monday, April 20, 2020, gun salutes, which are fired from various locations in London, are usually carried out by the royal family to mark special occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays.
The queen knows very well that there are no special steps that can be taken to perform the gun salute for her birthday anniversary because she feels it is inappropriate to do so in this situation. This is believed to be the first request in the 68 years of Queen Elizabeth's reign.
"We will not celebrate Her Majesty's birthday in any special way this year because of the #coronavirus crisis," said a statement via Twitter by British media that first reported on the queen's request.
Buckingham Palace said last month that a parade celebrating Queen Elizabeth's birthday in June would not be held given restrictions on social gatherings. There are no alternative plans to replace the parade. Then in early April, Queen Elizabeth also delivered a soothing message to the nation, promising "better days will come back."
The UK is already in its fourth week of lockdown policy. Many business activities have been forced to close and residents have been ordered to stay at home. The government also said it was not considering lifting the lockdown because Britain's condition was still "very worrying" given the increase in the number of fatalities.
In addition, the British medical team is also arguing with the government. This is because the medical team received advice from the government that personal protective equipment (PPE) used when treating patients infected with COVID-19 must be reused due to low supplies throughout the country. The shipment of 84 tonnes of PPE from Turkey, which the ministers said would arrive on Sunday April 19, was apparently postponed.
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