Prince Charles has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating, Clarence House has announced. It is the second time the heir to the throne, 73, has contracted the virus. The first time was in 2020. The Queen has been confirmed to have been in direct contact with Charles, but the monarch is not displaying any symptoms, a palace source said. They declined to say whether or not the Queen had tested negative. The 95-year-old is believed to have spent time with Charles on Tuesday when her eldest son was carrying out an investiture on her behalf at her Windsor Castle home. She is understood to be fully vaccinated so will not be self isolating, although she will be advised to take daily lateral flow tests for a week. A message on the prince’s official Twitter feed stated: “This morning the Prince of Wales has tested positive for Covid-19 and is now self-isolating. “HRH is deeply disappointed not to be able to attend today’s events in Winchester and will look to reschedule his visit as soon as possible.” The announcement of the positive test was made just after midday, about 12 minutes before Charles was due to arrive in Winchester to unveil a statue. It comes days after the Queen marked her platinum jubilee by expressing her “sincere wish” that the Duchess of Cornwall would be Queen Camilla at Charles’s side when he became king. The Duchess of Cornwall, who has tested negative, revealed during solo engagements on Thursday that Charles, who is self-isolating, is finding the situation “a bit tiresome”. Camilla had accompanied Charles to the British Museum on Wednesday evening where they met scores of people at a reception to celebrate the work of the British Asian Trust. At the reception – where he was in close contact with the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and Ian Rush, the former Liverpool footballer – Charles spoke about the “devastating impact” the pandemic has had on south Asia. Using his pet name for Camilla, which means “darling” or “beloved” in Urdu, he said: “I cannot quite believe it is almost two years to the day that both my mehabooba and myself were able to be with all of you to celebrate the work of the British Asian Trust.” In March 2020, Charles lost his sense of taste and smell after contracting Covid, but suffered overall from a mild form of the virus. He said he “got away with it quite lightly”. At the time, he spent seven days in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland before resuming his duties. His situation is known as a reinfection – when someone tests positive for Covid-19 more than 90 days after a previous positive result – and these represent about 10% of daily cases in England. Of the 14.8m infection episodes in England since the start of the pandemic, 588,114 (4%) are probably reinfections.