William And Kate Urge Followers To ‘Look After’ Mental Health Weeks After Joking About Coronavirus

Topline: Prince William and Kate Middleton encouraged people on Sunday to look after their mental health during the coronavirus crisis, four days after Prince Charles tested positive for the disease⁠—and one month after a shocking video of William joking about spreading COVID-19 to healthcare workers surfaced.

• “The last few weeks have been anxious and unsettling for everyone,” the Duke and Duchess wrote on their official Kensington Palace Twitter account, adding, “We have to take time to support each other and find ways to look after our mental health.” 
• William and Kate’s renewed push for mental health wellbeing came four days after William’s father, Prince Charles⁠—next in line for the British throne⁠—tested positive for the disease.
• About a month ago, a video of William joking about coronavirus to Irish healthcare workers surfaced; in it, he can be heard saying, “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are spreading coronavirus. Sorry. We’re keeping an eye on that, so do tell us if we need to stop.”
• The Duke of Cambridge was also caught quipping to a paramedic: “I bet everyone’s like ‘I’ve got coronavirus, I’m dying,’ and you’re like ‘no, you’ve just got a cough.'”
• At the time the video was captured, the U.K. had about 85 confirmed cases of COVID-19, while Ireland had six, numbers which have steadily climbed in the meantime.
• William and Kate have since visited British healthcare workers to thank them for their work, and Queen Elizabeth II, who decamped to Windsor Castle outside of London amid the outbreak, has issued a statement encouraging the British people to remain strong throughout the ordeal. 

Big number: 1,228. That’s how many people have died in the U.K. as of Sunday morning, according to Reuters. Over 200 people died in the U.K. from the virus on Saturday alone. The entire country has over 17,000 confirmed cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, while over 681,000 cases are confirmed worldwide.

Key background: Mental health advocacy is a signature issue for Prince William and Kate Middleton. William, along with his brother, Prince Harry, have previously launched a mental health organization called Heads Up, and have spoken about the long-lasting impacts they experienced by losing their mother, Princess Diana, to a car crash in 1997. But Prince Charles’ COVID-19 diagnosis, along with a nationwide lockdown, has made the outbreak a graver issue for the U.K.—along with the rest of the world⁠—than it was a month ago, when William was caught joking on video.