This royal has received the COVID-19 vaccine© Getty Images

This royal has received the COVID-19 vaccine

The monarch’s grandson tested positive for coronavirus in December


UPDATED JANUARY 4, 2021 12:32 PM EST

 Queen Margrethe II  has received the COVID-19 vaccine. The 80-year-old monarch was vaccinated on Jan. 1. In a statement released on Friday, the Danish Royal House said, “Her Majesty the Queen has today been vaccinated against COVID-19. The queen will be revaccinated in about three weeks.” According to The Daily Mail,  Crown Princess Mary ’s mother-in-law is the “first European sovereign to officially announce the news of her vaccination.”

© Getty Images

The Queen of Denmark, 80, has been vaccinated

Ahead of receiving the vaccine, the monarch celebrated Christmas with her son Prince Joachim, his wife Princess Marie and their kids Prince Henrik and Princess Athena, as well as Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix. In her 49th New Year’s speech on Dec. 31, the Queen spoke about the pandemic and how it “has turned society upside down.”

“The crisis has brought about changes, both on a personal and societal level. Let us assure each other that on the other side of the crisis we will remember what we have been through. Let us take the good experiences with us and let us try to arrange our lives according to them,” she said (translated to English).

The Danish royal concluded her remarks saying, “Tonight we say goodbye to a strange year. 2020 we will not forget. It was a year of trial, but we showed that we can stand together when it comes and that we manage to find bright moments, despite deprivation and insecurity. Now we enter 2021. May the new year be a year that brings us many joys and where we continue to remember to be there for each other.”

Last month, Queen Margrethe’s grandson  Prince Christian , who is second in line to the Danish throne, tested positive for COVID-19. Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik’s oldest child was diagnosed with coronavirus following an outbreak at his school. The Crown Prince Couple and their three youngest children—Princess Isabella, 13, Prince Vincent, nine, and Princess Josephine, nine—subsequently tested negative. Christian, 15, made his first appearance after testing positive in a Christmas greeting with his parents and younger siblings.