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The Queen has just made the presumably difficult decision to cancel her pre-Christmas lunch with other members of the royal family, following the news that the COVID-19 Omicron variant is spreading at a rapid rate.
Not only is the latest variant spreading across the UK at a dangerously fast rate, but it is also deemed to be more transmissible than the previous Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants, so we understand why the 95-year-old British monarch – who has been told to take it easy and scale back on some of her work commitments following her one-night stay in hospital back in October – is taking these precautions.
The Queen's pre-Christmas lunch is traditionally held in Buckingham Palace before she leaves for Sandringham for the holidays, and is typically attended by members of the royal family, some of whom can't always travel to Norfolk to be with her on Christmas Day.
Some of the traditional attendees include Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, as well as the rest of the monarch's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Queen's cousins the Gloucesters, the Duke of Kent and the Michaels of Kent are also some of the extended family members who are usually in attendance too.
This year however, the pre-Christmas lunch was due to be held in Windsor Castle, where The Queen has been staying throughout the COVID pandemic. Last year's lunch was cancelled altogether, as the country went into a controversial lockdown at Christmas.
This will be the first Christmas that Queen Elizabeth II will spend without her husband of 73 years, the late Prince Philip; and palace insiders have insisted that Her Majesty wanted to make it as joyous an occasion as possible under the circumstances. "Whatever her private grief is, she wants to get on in as cheerful a way as possible," an insider reportedly told People.
