Queen records historic special message amid coronavirus crisis

The Queen is set to take a historic step this weekend - one that she’s only taken four other times in her 68-year reign.

The Queen’s historic address will be broadcast on Monday morning, Australian time. Picture: Steve Parsons/Pool/AFP

A special message from the Queen to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth will be broadcast on Monday morning (AEST).

The address will be about the coronavirus and was recorded at Windsor Castle, a statement from Buckingham Palace said.

It will be just the fourth time the Queen has made such an address, beyond her usual Christmas message, in her 68-year reign.

She usually only broadcasts speeches at Christmas time. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The other three came after the Queen Mother's death in 2002, ahead of Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral in 1997 and about the First Gulf War in 1991, according to the BBC.

In the UK, it will be televised at 8pm on Sunday.

It comes as Prince Charles opened an enormous new field hospital in London by video link on Friday.

The 71-year-old royal spoke from his Birkhall home in Scotland, where he recently spent seven days in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus.

He described the new Nightingale Hospital, which took just nine days to construct inside the east London ExCel centre, as "a spectacular and almost unbelievable feat of work".

"In this dark time, this place will be a shining light," he said.

Charles appeared on a monitor as he speaks during the opening of the "NHS Nightingale" field hospital. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP

The field hospital currently has about 500 beds, but will eventually have 4,000.

Prince Charles said he hoped the hospital would only be needed for a short period of time and for as few people as possible.

Earlier this week, he appeared for the first time since being diagnosed with COVID-19 — and spoke about the “strange, frustrating and often distressing experience.”

“Having recently gone through the process of contracting this coronavirus – luckily with relatively mild symptoms – I now find myself on the other side of the illness, but still in no less a state of social distance and general isolation,” the Prince of Wales said in a video on his official Clarence House social media channel.

As Patron of @age_uk, The Prince of Wales shares a message on the Coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the older members of the community. pic.twitter.com/a6NEFPOtvQ

— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) April 1, 2020

“As we are all learning, this is a strange, frustrating and often distressing experience when the presence of family and friends is no longer possible and the normal structures of life are suddenly removed,” he said.

“At such an unprecedented and anxious time in all our lives, my wife and I are thinking particularly of all those who have lost their loved ones in such very difficult and abnormal circumstances, and of those having to endure sickness, isolation and loneliness.”