Shops, stadiums become coronavirus test centers

Shops and stadiums in London played host to drive-through coronavirus test centres on Monday as the UK ramped up its screening efforts.

Since a lockdown came into effect on March 23, the UK government has faced criticism from opposition parties for having limited testing capabilities.

On April 2 Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised that 100,000 tests would be carried out daily by the end of the month, but by Friday (April 24) only 28,760 had been carried out in a day.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday (April 27) that the government may not know if the target will have been met on Thursday (April 30) because of a time lag with data.

Johnson returned to work on Monday after recovering from COVID-19 with a warning that it was still too dangerous to relax a stringent lockdown hammering Britain's economy for fear of a deadly second outbreak.