London, (Samajweekly) As the UK reels under the coronavirus scourge with the national toll nearing 5,000 and total cases almost at 50,000, Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday made a special address to the nation – the fifth of her nearly seven-decade-long reign — to rally the people.
The Queen said the UK “will succeed” in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, thanked people for following government rules to stay at home and praised those “coming together to help others”, the BBC reported.
She also thanked key workers, saying “every hour” of work “brings us closer to a return to more normal times”.
“While we have faced challenges before, this one is different,” the Queen said.
“This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us.
“We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
The Queen, 93, also said the “painful sense of separation from their loved ones” that social distancing was causing for people reminded her of the experience child evacuees had during the Second World War.
“Now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do,” she said.
The monarch said everyone who was following guidance to stay at home was “helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones”.
“Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it,” she added.
The message was filmed by a single cameraman wearing protective equipment, with all the other technical staff in another room.
While the Queen makes an annual address to the nation at Christmas, this is only the fifth time she will make a special address since the first just before the First Gulf War in 1991.
The other three have been following the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997, at the death of the Queen Mother in 2002, and the diamond jubilee of her accession to the throne in 2012.
