'I don't want a second national lockdown,' Boris Johnson said. 'I think it would be completely wrong for this country and we are going to do everything in our power to prevent it.'
Johnson defended his decision to restrict social gatherings from 30 to just six people - a measure which many of his own backbenchers have strongly criticised as too draconian.Just last week, he suggested that rapid turnaround tests that would be used by the bulk of the population on a daily basis could be key to having a normal Christmas.
"We are a long way off I'm afraid, or we're still some way off, having those instant pregnancy-style liberating tests that tell you whether you're infectious or not," he said.Johnson's government has come under heavy criticism as the country's coronavirus testing capacity has buckled under the weight of demand with holidaymakers returning home, students resuming classroom lessons and workers urged to return to their offices.
A total 221,192 tests were processed across Britain in the last 24-hour reporting period and more than 20 million have been carried out in total, prompting the government to boast that it is testing more than any other European country. The UK's most recent daily death toll where a person who had died and had tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 28 days was 20.
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