What living with Covid looks like for the over

While it is not known whether the Queen will be offered one of these at-home treatments, given her age it seems likely.

In cases of more serious illness, high-risk patients are increasingly given the same monoclonal antibody treatments which were administered to the former US president Donald Trump and have been shown to reduce hospitalisation and death by around 60 per cent. Fergus Hamilton hails such treatments as “huge defences in the armour available to older folk”.

While he broadly supports the Government indicating that it will press ahead with ending the availability of mass tests as part of its “living with Covid” plans, he stresses the need to maintain targeted testing of older and vulnerable patients because of the effectiveness of the available drugs.

“We shouldn’t reduce targeted testing in the older population because there are such good benefits,” he says.

But even given such positive trends, there remains an underlying fear of the virus, which for some will be difficult to overcome in the weeks to follow.

Professor Tom Kirkwood, emeritus professor at Newcastle University, who has researched the field of ageing and health for nearly 50 years, says there are steps all elderly people can take to boost their immunity and improve their confidence about facing the virus.

These are, he says, nothing more complicated than eating moderately and well, ensuring plentiful supplies of vitamin C due to its immune-boosting properties, maintaining regular exercise to boost cardiovascular function pumping oxygen around the body and, above all, to remain positive.

“It is important not to be too fearful,” he says.

“There is evidence that having an optimistic outlook on life is also good for bodily function.”

And as he points out, there is no greater embodiment of that stoic approach, than the Queen herself.

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