Queen Elizabeth: Charles and Camilla To Join Queen For Christmas Day

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be with the Queen on Christmas Day, Clarence House has said. It comes after Buckingham Palace announced the Queen had cancelled spending Christmas at Sandringham, Norfolk, amid concerns about the rising levels of the Omicron variant.

Instead, she will spend the day in Windsor, as she did last year. The palace said it was a personal decision and "reflects a precautionary approach". It has not yet been confirmed where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be spending Christmas.

Last week the Queen announced that she would not be going ahead with her pre-Christmas family lunch.
That was also in response to worries about the spread of the new Covid variant. Since then, the UK has seen daily Covid case figures surge, with more than 100,000 cases announced for the first time on Wednesday.

During the autumn, the Queen had to withdraw from a series of public events, including the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and the Remembrance Sunday service, because of health concerns. But the latest change of plan has been in response to the rapid spread of the new highly mutated variant - amid calls for people to limit contacts during the Christmas festivities.