Queen Elizabeth II to address the nation on coronavirus Sunday evening

Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to address the nation and the Commonwealth on the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday evening, in a rare television broadcast. Buckingham Palace informed in a statement on Friday that the head of the state has already recorded the televised address to Britons.

"Her Majesty The Queen has recorded a special broadcast to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in relation to the Coronavirus outbreak," the palace said in a statement as reported by Independent. The address was recorded at Windsor Castle and will be broadcast Sunday at 8 p.m. local time.

The country's Department of Health and Social Care has said that more than 3,600 people in the UK have died during the coronavirus pandemic, and around 38,000 people have tested positive for the virus.

The queen's rare address comes at a time when the entire world is grappling with the deadly COVID-19, with Spain and the UK topping maximum number of cases. It was earlier reported that the 93-year-old monarch would address the nation at a critical time during the ongoing crisis.

The queen addresses the nation in a customary annual recorded message on Christmas Day. The only other instances when the monarch addressed the nation in her 68-year-reign was after the death of her mother – Queen Mother, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and during the Gulf War in 1991.

Buckingham Palace announced in March that all her official engagements would be postponed or cancelled in view of the coronavirus outbreak. She later left the Palace for Windsor Castle, west of London. This was done "as a sensible precaution and for practical reasons in the current circumstances," the palace said in a statement at the time.

The queen and her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh are self-isolation currently at Windsor Castle.

Meanwhile, the queen held the first 'virtual' Privy Council in history on Friday. She met her formal body of advisors via video conference.