Queen Elizabeth ,94, 'to withdraw from public duties for months' amid COVID-19 pandemic

Queen Elizabeth is reportedly set to withdraw from public duties for months in what is expected to be the longest absence from official duties in her 68-year reign.

The Sunday Times reports that the monarch, 94, will remain at Windsor Castle indefinitely due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The publication also confirmed that that Buckingham Palace will be closed to the public this summer for what is thought to be the first time in almost 30 years as her diary of engagements into the autumn has been placed on hold.

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 Sunday Times said.

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.

"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.

“If there is advice in the coming months that it’s fine for her to come back to London, she may do that, but until that time, she’d want to be seen to be being responsible in her actions for the nation.”

The Queen's last public engagement was the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9.

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