Queen Elizabeth only wore a mask maybe three times during the pandemic. She wandered around maskless for much of 2020 and 2021. She forced her ill, 99-year-old husband to travel to Scotland last year for no reason. She was forced into a “bubble” in Windsor and it doesn’t even sound like she adhered to bubble rules. Now that Liz is laughing it up in Balmoral with her favorite son Prince Andrew, why would anyone expect her to change her loosey-goosey lockdown vibe now? Apparently, a Balmoral staffer tested positive for Covid and few changes were made by the royals:

The Queen is carrying on with her Balmoral holiday after a staff member at the Scottish estate tested positive for coronavirus. The double-jabbed monarch, 95, will remain at her private castle in Aberdeenshire as planned and the employee was sent home on Saturday following a PCR test.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: ‘We have procedures in place should a member of any team get Covid.’

The monarch, who once described the virus as a ‘plague’ sweeping the planet, has a castle-full of relatives including Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Princess Beatrice and husband Edoardo Mozzi, and Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children are expected to arrive later this month.

Sources insisted that all the staff at Balmoral are tested for Covid daily and that after the employee came up as positive on Saturday, they were sent home and the staff canteen and bar were shut.

They told the Sun that workers have been told to wear facemasks and to socially distance, but that the royals themselves are ‘pretty much carrying on as they were’ before the positive test. However, the Queen and her family missed Sunday’s church service on the Scottish estate – with insiders suggesting they may have done so while they wait for the results of their Covid PCR tests.

Under government guidance, people in England and Northern Ireland who have had two Covid vaccine doses will no longer have to self-isolate if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive. Instead of undergoing 10 days of house-arrest, they are now advised to take a PCR test – though this is not compulsory. They are also advised to wear facemasks in enclosed spaces and to limit contact with others, particularly the clinically vulnerable. However, if they test positive for Covid, they will be legally required to self-isolate.

‘Courtiers mooted the idea of staff putting the family’s meals on a buffet table with the royals then helping themselves,’ the source said. ‘But the Queen has decided food will continue being served by servants and the family will still go out shooting stag and having picnics on the estate. Although Her Majesty is 95 and has been double jabbed, the feeling is she still has to be careful yet she’s determined to carry on as normal. She does not want to overreact.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I wondered why there weren’t any church-ride photos on Sunday, and this answers those questions. I thought that perhaps the Queen skipped church because of the Andrew situation, and not wanting to be seen in the car with him. But no, this makes more sense. They were all being tested. And instead of just being cautious for a few days and wearing masks and trying to ensure that the staffers are protected too, the Queen was just like “carry on, do the same things as before!” Sure, she’s vaccinated. But is everyone else, including staff?

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.