Under Pressure, UK’s Johnson Vows ’Massive’ Coronavirus Tests Increase

By Staff, Agencies

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to ramp up testing for coronavirus after facing criticism for being slower than some European peers to roll out mass checks for front-line health workers and the country’s population.

Britain initially took a much more restrained approach to the outbreak but changed the approach after modelling showed a quarter of a million people in the country could perish.

Johnson imposed more stringent measures, effectively shuttering the world’s fifth largest economy, but the government has been widely criticized for having far too few ventilators and doing far too few tests.

“We’re also massively increasing testing,” Johnson said in a video message from a flat in Downing Street where he is self-isolating after testing positive himself.

“I want to say a special word about testing because it is so important. As I have said for weeks and weeks, this is the way through: this is how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle, this is how we will defeat it in the end.”

Johnson’s message, posted on Twitter on Wednesday evening, followed pledges from British ministers to accelerate testing in the days and weeks ahead after a slew of sometimes contradictory statements on the numbers already checked.