King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden have postponed official palace plans as coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) spreads throughout Europe.
A white-tie dinner, which was to be hosted for 150 guests, was originally scheduled to take place on March 4 at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.
But on March 2, it was called off through a statement released on the Royal Family’s website “out of consideration for the invited guests” following confirmed cases of coronavirus in Sweden.
"In recent days, a number of cases of infection from the novel coronavirus have been detected in Sweden,” the Royal statement began.
“The Public Health Authority considers the risk of detecting cases of covid-19 in Sweden to be high, but the risk of the infection spreading is considered low. Awaiting further development of events, Their Majesties, as hosts, choose to postpone the Official Dinner that was planned to be held at the Royal Palace on Wednesday, 4 March. This is done out of consideration for the invited guests."
On March 2, The New York Times reported that there were 14 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Sweden, and that the Public Health Agency of Sweden had raised its assessment of the risk of a widespread outbreak in the country from “low” to “moderate.”
As of March 3, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shared that there have been 2,495 reported cases of coronavirus across the EU/EEA, the UK, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland.
While over half of those cases were reported in Italy, nearby countries that included Sweden were also seeing a rise in the number of coronavirus cases, spurring precautionary measures to be put in place, such as those that the Swedish Royals took in canceling their official dinner.
