Over the last few months, the U.K. has emerged as a coronavirus success story by vaccinating a large proportion of their population even as a highly contagious variant began to spread. Ever since December, the royals have visited some of the makeshift vaccination clinics that have sprung up around the county, but on Tuesday, Prince William and Kate Middleton made a visit to a very unusual one. The couple traveled to Westminster Abbey, the grand cathedral where they were wed nearly 10 years ago, to speak to the doctors, nurses, and volunteers who run the recently opened site, where nearly 2,000 doses are distributed each day. 

The couple visited the abbey to mark the National Day of Reflection, the one-year anniversary of the country’s first COVID-19 lockdown. The vaccination center is being run out of the abbey’s south transept, near Poet’s Corner, where Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, and more British literary luminaries are interred. William and Kate then visited the shrine of St. Edward the Confessor to light a candle, lay a bouquet of daffodils, and join in on a national moment of remembrance for the lives lost during the pandemic. 

According to Hello, William noted that he and his wife have not been vaccinated against the virus. “I’m a while away yet until I get mine. But you’re getting there pretty fast so it won’t be long,” he said. “I’ve had plenty of vaccinations in my time. I get jabbed a lot.”

To honor the day of reflection, Queen Elizabeth sent a bouquet of flowers from Windsor Castle to St. Bartholomew, the hospital where Prince Philip underwent heart surgery earlier this month. “As we look forward to a brighter future together, today we pause to reflect on the grief and loss that continues to be felt by so many people and families, and pay tribute to the immeasurable service of those who have supported us all over the last year,” she said in a statement.

In a video message, Prince Charles also marked the Day of Reflection by praising the country’s resilience. “We have all been inspired by the resourcefulness we have witnessed, humbled by the dedication shown by so many, and moved, beyond words, by the sacrifices we have seen,” he said. “We are emerging from this time with a renewed confidence in one another and with a strengthened faith in our society—richly diverse in its many communities and cultures, but united in its commitment to the common good and the welfare of others, particularly those most vulnerable.” 

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