”Beginning to turn the tide”

The UK is at the point of “maximum risk” in its battle with coronavirus, Boris Johnson has warned, as he returned to Downing Street to lead the government’s response to the outbreak amid calls to increase testing numbers and begin lifting the lockdown.

The prime minister resumed his full-time duties three weeks after he was hospitalised with Covid-19, insisting he would not risk a second peak in the disease by relaxing restrictions too quickly.

Speaking in Downing Street as he returned to lead the government’s fight against COVID-19, the prime minister said easing off would be to “throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak” of the coronavirus.

The UK is “beginning to turn the tide” in the fight against the coronavirus but this is not the time to relax the nationwide lockdown, Boris Johnson said.