Queen Elizabeth II's servants working three-week shifts amid coronavirus

Queen Elizabeth II's closest servants are working three-week shifts in rotation in order to keep the monarch safe from coronavirus.

The 94-year-old royal is keeping her 24 closest staff members close by amid the global health crisis, to ensure she and her husband Prince Philip, 98, are not at risk of picking up the potentially-deadly virus.

According to The Sun newspaper, the 24 staff have been split into two teams of 12, who work with the royal family for three weeks, before having three weeks off whilst the next team takes over.

During their three weeks off, the staff are allowed to spend two weeks at home with their families, before they must quarantine for a week, where they are also tested for coronavirus - which is also known as COVID-19 - before they return to work for the next three weeks.

A source told the publication: "No chances can be taken with the Queen and the Duke's health, so it's totally understandable.

"But the fact this move has been taken indicates there will be no change soon.

"The Queen will clearly be in lockdown for many months.

"It's hard to see when it will be deemed safe for her to venture out again."

Members of the royal family have been sheltering away from public events for nine weeks due to the pandemic - which has claimed the lives of almost 37,000 people in the UK and over 348,000 worldwide - and its thought the royals could continue to self-isolate long after the rest of the UK resumes operating as normal.

Meanwhile, the monarch appeared in a rare address to the nation in March when the UK's lockdown began, where she promised "better days would return".

She said at the time: "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again."

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