In a rare address to the nation, Queen Elizabeth II plans to exhort Britons to rise to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.

The queen will be drawing on wisdom from her decades as Britain’s head of state to urge discipline and resolve in a time of crisis.

The 93-year-old monarch on Sunday night is expected to acknowledge the suffering that many families have experienced because of the COVID-19 crisis, which has infected over 42,000 citizens and killed at least 4,313 of them.

She will seek to lift spirits and offer hope to the country in its hour of need.

The queen gives yearly Christmas messages but has given an address like this on only three previous occasions.

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