COVID-19: Queen Elizabeth will thank frontline workers during her rare address

As Queen Elizabeth II is all set to address the UK and the Commonwealth on April 5, as per reports, she will be urging people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak. According to the reported extracts of the rare special address, the 93-year-old will say that she has faith that people will respond, despite the difficulties. The speech was recorded at Windsor Castle, where the Queen has been practising social distancing, and it will be broadcasted on television and radio at 20:00 BST. 

According to the royal officials, the speech is ‘deeply personal’. In her address, she will be personally thanking the frontline healthcare staff and other key workers for their efforts during the crisis. Furthermore, she will reportedly call the current situation an ‘increasingly challenging time’ and say that the disruption has brought grief to some, ‘financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all’. 

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She will reportedly say that she hopes that in the coming years' everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. She also hopes that the next generation will say that ‘Britons of the generation were as strong as any’. She also believes that the ‘attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise the UK’, 

While the world battles the unprecedented outbreak of coronavirus, Queen will address the nation only the fourth time in her 68-year-old reign. Even though Queen is known to record messages for British citizens during Christmas, annually, other messages have been deemed rare. Previously, Queen has made such rare addresses only three times. The most recent one was after Queen’s mother’s demise in 2002, ahead of Princess of Wales Diana’s funeral in 1997 and the first was during the First Gulf War in 1991. The Queen even made a televised address to mark Diamond Jubilee of her leadership in 2012.

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4,000-bed temporary hospital 

The royal announcement came as the UK recorded more than 4,000 deaths and over 41,000 cases of coronavirus. Meanwhile, Prince Charles opened a new 4,000-bed temporary hospital in a conference centre in east London. The temporary hospital marks the first of several being built in Britain to deal with the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

The new hospital is named after that trailblazing 19th-century nurse Florence Nightingale and has been built in just nine days. According to the official NHS website, the hospital is built in Bristol and Harrogate to provide beds if local services need them during the peak of coronavirus. While paying tribute to everyone involved in the project, Prince Charles said that it is ‘incredible’ to have transformed the giant ExCeL centre into a critical care facility in such a short space of time. 

(Image source: AP)

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