Queen Elizabeth determined to host pre-Christmas lunch despite rising COVID-19 threat

Queen Elizabeth is forging ahead with plans to host her extended family for a pre-Christmas lunch at Windsor, despite rising cases of coronavirus across the UK and Europe.

Her Majesty is expected to welcome up to 50 members of the British royal family to Windsor Castle on Tuesday.

The monarch has been given the all-clear by her doctors to hold the lunch after being forced to cancel a number of public engagements due to ill health in recent months.

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But the 95-year-old will wait as long as possible before deciding whether to go ahead with the gathering amid the threat of the new omicron strain, The Telegraph UK reports.

In 2020, the lunch was scrapped altogether due to pandemic household limits.

But the Queen is understood to be determined to have her family close this Christmas as she marks the first festive season without husband Prince Philip.

In previous years the luncheon has been held at Buckingham Palace in London, but as the Queen is now living at Windsor, it has been moved.

READ MORE: How the royals celebrated Christmas during the 2020 pandemic

Among the guests invited are the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal, Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.

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Zara and Mike Tindall are also on the list along with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent and Prince Andrew.

Three of the Queen's newest great-grandchildren born this year will also be present — August Brooksbank, Lucas Tindall and Sienna Mapelli Mozzi.

Prince Harry and Meghan, and children Archie and Lilibet, will remain in the United States and will not spend Christmas with the royals.

Following the lunch, the Queen is expected to travel for Sandringham where she will spend Christmas Day and the New Year.

Her Majesty is believed to be flying by helicopter to her Norfolk home, instead of catching the train as she has done in the past.

She will be joined by her family — fewer than at the Windsor pre-Christmas lunch — and is hoping to attend mass on Christmas morning at the St Mary Magdalene church.

The Queen's Christmas message, which airs at 3pm on December 25, was recorded at Windsor Castle for the second year in a row.