10th May, 2020
British Queen Elizabeth II, may remain out of public view beyond October, the Sunday Times reported.
The paper, quoting aides of the 94 year-old monarch, said she will remain at Windsor Castle indefinitely as long as the coronavirus crisis persists in the UK.
She has been isolating at Windsor Castle since mid-March.
Britain announced 3,923 new cases on Sunday and 188 deaths.
It has a total of 219,183, second to Spain and third in the world, with U.S. ahead of all.
Britain’s death toll of 31,855 is now the worst in Europe and second to U.S.
The Queen’s long absence from her usual duties will be the longest in the 68 years of her reign.
Buckingham Palace will be closed to the public this summer for what is thought to be the first time in 27 years
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It first opened for the general audience as an exhibition venue in 1993.
Events such as the Trooping the Colour, garden parties, etc., have already been cancelled, according to Sunday Times.
Her diary of engagements into the autumn has also been put on hold, with plans for a state visit from South Africa in October in limbo.
“There are discussions about what we could and couldn’t do come October. We haven’t cancelled a load of engagements.
“But nothing is going into Her Majesty’s diary at the moment”, one royal aide told the British publication.
The source went on to specify that if advice comes for her to halt her confinement at Windsor, she may listen to it and return to London.
“But until that time, she’d want to be seen to be being responsible in her actions for the nation”.
“I don’t think we’ll see her again for a while”, another source weighed in, insisting that “nobody will risk it”, especially given the threat of a second spike later in the year.
Since the Queen went into isolation at Windsor with her hisband, the Duke of Edinburgh, she has given two public addresses to the nation.
The first was on 5 April to boost Brits’ morale amid the raging health crisis.
The latest on VE-Day, when she urged the nation to “never give up and despair”.