Brian May has been battling the Covid-19 virus after attending a friend's birthday party.

The Queen guitarist, 74, told his Instagram followers he and his wife, Anita Dobson, 72, had been "incredibly careful" during the pandemic.

However, they decided to go out to a birthday lunch for a friend earlier this month where all guests provided negative Covid-19 tests.

"It seemed like you were in a safe situation. You have your negative tests... What could possibly go wrong? We thought were in a safe bubble so we didn't wear masks," May explained in a video posted to Instagram on Saturday.

By Monday though he had begun to feel symptoms and feared the worst.

"We're testing the whole time and we're testing negative. And Tuesday, I hear that I think eight people from the party had already tested positive and had Covid in their systems," the guitarist said.

Having felt like he had suffered, "the worst flu you can imagine" he eventually tested positive late this week.

"Yep. The shocking day finally came for me. The dreaded double red line," he wrote next to a photo of his positive lateral flow test. "And yes - definitely NO sympathy please - it has been a truly horrible few days, but I'm OK. And I will tell the tale.

"PLEASE take extra care out there, good folks. This thing is incredibly transmissible. You really do NOT want it messing up YOUR Christmas."

May's brush with the coronavirus is his latest health scare, as he suffered a heart attack back in May 2020.

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