Concerns about the health of Queen Elizabeth II returned yesterday when she missed a New Year’s Day church service. The world’s longest-reigning monarch has been out of public view since before Christmas.

For all of 2016 Queen Elizabeth was going strong -- opening hospitals, welcoming Britain’s new Prime Minister Theresa May, and starring in her own 90th birthday extravaganza. So when she didn’t appear with the rest of the royal family for church on Christmas Day, it made news in the U.K., said correspondent Elizabeth Palmer

Three days before, a helicopter had flown the queen from Buckingham Palace to her home in the countryside -- a journey that in the past she’s made by train. The reason: she had a cold, but it was bad enough that she, very unusually, missed church again on New Year’s Day.

The queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, said last night that she was “better.”

But loyal subjects across Britain won’t relax until they see her, poised, calm, hatted and gloved, and back on duty.