Prince Charles feels he "got away with it quite lightly" when he contracted coronavirus

He said: "It makes me even more determined to push and shout and prod if you see what I mean. Whatever I can do behind the scenes sometimes. I suppose it did partly, I mean I was lucky in my case and got away with it quite lightly.

"But I've had it, and I can so understand what other people have gone through. And I feel particularly for those for instance, who have lost their loved ones and have been unable to be with them at the time. That to me is the most ghastly thing.

"But in order to prevent this happening to so many more people, this is why I'm so determined to find a way out of this.

"In order to bring the world and all of us back to the centre, back to understanding what we have to do in relationship to the natural world."

Charles is concerned the world will experience further pandemics if the planet continues to be neglected.

He told Sky News: "The more we erode the natural world, the more we destroy what's called biodiversity, which is the immense diversity of life, plant life, tree life, everything else. Marine life. The more we expose ourselves to this kind of danger.

"We've had these other disasters with SARS and Ebola and goodness knows what else, all of these things are related to the loss of biodiversity.

"It's one of the reasons that I tried to get the point across that we should have been treating the planet as if it was a patient long ago.

"So no self-respecting doctor would ever have let the situation, if the planet is a patient, reach this stage before making an intervention.

"I think we're slightly paying the price as a result."