(London) Queen Elizabeth II has decided to cancel the traditional meal she is hosting with her extended family before Christmas due to the surge in contamination with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, British media reported on Thursday.
The 95-year-old sovereign, whose appearances have been rare since her brief hospitalization in October, planned to bring together around fifty people at noon Tuesday at Windsor Castle, now her main residence, west of London. She then has to spend Christmas in Sandringham, in the east of England, with her close family.
According to a source at Buckingham Palace quoted by British media, the Queen has decided to cancel the event as a precaution, due to the health situation as cases of COVID-19 soar to record levels in the UK. United.
The tabloid The Sun reported Wednesday that she hoped to maintain this meal which she holds dear, canceled last year already due to the pandemic and which would have been her first since the death of her husband Philip in April.
Many Britons have decided in recent days to cancel restaurant dinners, shows or Christmas parties at work to avoid endangering loved ones or having to cancel their Christmas plans, like last year due to the then emergence of the Alpha variant.
The state of health of the sovereign, which reigns for nearly 70 years, worries since she was put to rest by her doctors on October 20 and spent a night in the hospital for “preliminary” examinations of which the nature has never been specified.
It has since considerably reduced its activities and notably canceled its presence at the COP26 climate conference in Scotland. She holds most of her audiences by videoconference, but also some in person like Wednesday with the Sultan of Oman, whom she received without a mask in Windsor.