Queen Elizabeth Cancels Festive Family Gathering as COVID-19 Cases Rise
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Each year, the week before Christmas, the Queen invites her extended family for a lunch so they can all get together during the festive season. However, today it was announced that the event has been cancelled for the second year in a row because of concerns over COVID-19.
A royal source said today that the decision was “a precautionary one” as it was felt that too many people’s Christmas plans could be put at risk if it went ahead. The source added that while there was “regret” there was also the belief that it was the “right thing to do.”
The lunch for more than 50 family members is traditionally held at Buckingham Palace, but this year was scheduled to take place at Windsor Castle where the Queen has largely based herself throughout the pandemic. There was no official word today on plans for a Sandringham Christmas for the monarch although it is still thought that she will travel to her Norfolk estate ahead of Christmas day. This will be the 95-year-old Queen’s first Christmas without Prince Philip, who died in April this year aged 99.
The Queen’s decision to cancel her celebrations comes as people across the UK are having to reconsider their plans due to the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus. Unlike last year in the UK, there has been no ban on gatherings, but Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has urged people to consider limiting their social interactions. “I really think people should be prioritizing those things, and only those things, that really matter to them,” he said during a Downing Street news conference on Wednesday.
One royal tradition that will definitely be going ahead, however, is the Queen’s Christmas speech. Recorded in advance, it will be broadcast at 3 p.m. in the UK on Christmas day as well as being posted online. The monarch has been carrying out what Buckingham Palace has described as "light duties" since being advised by doctors to rest earlier this year.
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