​Queen to withdraw from public duties ​

The Queen is due to withdraw from public duties for months in what could be the longest absence of her 68-year reign.

Her Majesty, who is 94, will remain at Windsor Castle indefinitely as the coronavirus crisis continues in the UK.

Buckingham Palace will be closed to the public over the European summer for what is thought to be the first time in almost 30 years.

The Sunday Times reports that her diary of engagements into autumn is also on hold.

She had plans for a state visit to South Africa in October, but it is not yet known if this will go ahead.

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Events including Trooping the Colour, the Order of the Garter service and her summer garden parties have already been cancelled, while Royal Ascot – which she attends annually – will only take place behind closed doors, if at all.

The Queen has recently given two public addresses to the nation.

In the first, on April 5, she echoed WWII forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn as she promised those coping with forced separation from loved ones “we will meet again”.

Some 24 million people watched the speech.

And on VE Day, she urged Brits: “Never give up – never despair.”

GARDEN PARTIES CANCELLED OVER PANDEMIC

The monarch usually returns from Windsor to Buckingham Palace in May before taking her annual summer break at Balmoral in July.

However, royal aides say she has no engagements and will not leave Windsor until the threat from coronavirus clears.

Her last public engagement was the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9.

She has been isolating at Windsor with the Duke of Edinburgh since March 19.

Despite that, she has been in regular contact with the prime minister and other world leaders.

The news comes on the day Boris Johnson prepares to outline his ‘road map’ out of the UK’s lockdown.

Yesterday, coronavirus deaths in the country rose to 31,587 after 346 more people lost their lives to the deadly disease.

A royal source told The Times: “The Queen won’t do anything which goes against the advice of people in her [age] category and she’s going to take all the appropriate advice.”
 

This story was originally published on The Sun and is reproduced with permission