Britain’s Queen Elizabeth turned 94 on Tuesday but the coronavirus lockdown meant there was little fanfare to mark the occasion.

Elizabeth, the world’s eldest and longest-reigning monarch, typically spends her birthday privately without much public celebration.

Royal birthdays and anniversaries are traditionally marked by ceremonial gun salutes, in which blank rounds are fired from various locations across London, but the queen felt it would be inappropriate to allow this to go ahead given the circumstances.

The latest official figures show that about 16,000 Britons infected with the new coronavirus have died in hospital, the fifth highest number globally. The nation is in its fourth week of lockdown, with most businesses closed. Flags are usually flown on government buildings to mark the queen’s birthday but officials have been told that this year not everyone would be expected to arrange for that to happen.