WATCH: Queen Elizabeth gives rare speech for just the fourth time in her 68-year reign

The Queen urged Britain and the Commonwealth to rise to the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus pandemic as she made a rare public address at 7am New Zealand time today.

It is only the fourth such time that she has done so in almost 70 years on the throne.

The address was a recorded broadcast from Windsor Castle where the Queen has been residing since March 19.

The 93-year-old monarch promised "better days would return" and encouraged everyone across the world to join in a "common endeavour" to help beat the virus, which has claimed thousands of lives.

She said: "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. 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 British monarch went on to say how she hoped people would be proud of how they responded to the current challenges.

She added: "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge."

Her message was the first ad-hoc speech of this kind since the Queen Mother's death in 2002.

She also gave similar addresses in light of Princess Diana's tragic death and during the first Gulf War.