Spanish Princess, Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Parma has become the first royal to pass away due to coronavirus complications.
According to Fox News, the 86-year-old was a cousin of Spain’s King Felipe VI.
Her brother Prince Sixto Enrique de Borbon, the Duke of Aranjuez, announced on Facebook that she died after contracting COVID-19.
The post reads, “On this afternoon our sister Maria Teresa de Borbon Parma and Borbon Busset, a victim of the coronavirus COVID-19, died in Paris at the age of eighty-six.”
Princess Teresa’s death comes weeks after King Felipe VI of Spain tested negative for the virus.
Born on July 28, 1933, Princess Maria Teresa studied in France and became a professor at Paris’ Sorbonne as well as a professor of Sociology at Madrid’s Complutense University.
She was known for her outspoken views and activist work, which led to her nickname the “Red Princess.”
Her funeral was held in Madrid on Friday.
As of Sunday a total of 2,606 people in France had died from coronavirus, France’s director-general of health, Jérôme Salomon, said, marking an increase of 292 deaths in 24 hours.
France recorded a total of 40,174 confirmed cases of the virus Sunday, according to the French public health website. That’s 2,599 more cases than on Saturday, marking a 6.9% increase — a smaller rise than the past several days.
Spain has also recorded a smaller percentage increase in case numbers in recent days. The country has recorded more than 80,000 cases and 6,803 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
The British royal family has also been affected by the global pandemic.
Prince Charles, first in line to the British throne, tested positive for coronavirus on March 25. Charles, 71, is currently self-isolating.
Experts have it that Spain became a hotspot for Coronavirus because of its “Unseasonably warm weather, Champions League football and other major events, homes on the beach and the café culture: just a few of the factors that may have helped carry an insidious virus across southern Europe — from country to country and city to city, from Italy to Spain and Portugal.”
Coupled with fact that the “symptoms take at least several days to emerge — and by a series of missteps by governments as they chased its impact, before eventually succumbing to the reality that only a total lockdown could stem the tide.”
