No New Year's Day Church for Still-Sick Queen

Queen Elizabeth is taking another sick day from traditional holiday appearances due to a bad cold she just can't beat. Last week the 90-year-old royal matriarch skipped Christmas church services due to her illness, and Buckingham Palace announced Sunday she'd also be staying home from a New Year's Day service at her estate in Sandringham, the New York Times reports. "The Queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold," a statement from the palace read. Her husband, Prince Philip, is also said to be under the weather, but he showed up at the Christmas Day service and Sunday's.

The queen's age and the sickness that kept her from Christmas Day services for the first time in almost 30 years got the rumor mill buzzing about her health overall, and earlier this week an online prankster declared she had died, per the South China Morning Post. A now-suspended Twitter account with the handle @BBCNewsUKI broadcast Thursday that Buckingham Palace had announced the queen's death, tweeting "Circumstances are unknown" and "More details to follow," followed by another tweet that was more clearly a joke. A royal source tells CNN that even though the queen is still recuperating, she was "up [and] working" on Sunday and "taking red boxes," which contain official government business. (More Queen Elizabeth II stories.)