The prime minister has said the U.K. is now “past the peak” of the coronavirus pandemic.
Boris Johnson said he was not going to minimize the logistical challenges the government has faced in getting protective personal equipment to healthcare workers.
However, he stressed that at no point during the pandemic had the National Health Service (NHS) been overwhelmed and that the country had avoided an “uncontrollable and catastrophic” epidemic that could have caused 500,000 deaths.
Johnson said that he will publish a comprehensive plan next week that will set out how to get the economy moving again and children back to school but that the U.K. could beat the virus through “resolve and ingenuity.”
The prime minister led the daily coronavirus briefing for the first time since his return to work on Monday.
He spent three weeks recovering from coronavirus, spending three nights in intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
The prime minister said that there have now been 26,711 coronavirus deaths in the whole of the U.K. in all settings, an increase of 674 on yesterday.
It means the U.K. now has the third-highest death toll in the world, after the U.S. and Italy.
Johnson’s fiancé Carrie Symonds gave birth to a “healthy baby boy” yesterday at a London hospital.
A spokeswoman for the prime minister said: “The prime minister and Ms Symonds are thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby boy at a London hospital.
“Both mother and baby are doing very well. The PM and Ms Symonds would like to thank the fantastic NHS maternity team.”
