A "world-beating" track and trace system to stop a second coronavirus peak and help ease lockdown has been promised by the end of May by Boris Johnson.
The prime minister said he had "great confidence" the system abandoned in March given the ballooning number of cases will be up and running in time for English schools to reopen on 1 June.
He was under pressure to make the announcement after the government's deputy chief scientific adviser said on Tuesday a highly effective version of the programme needed to be off the ground for any changes to social distancing to be safe.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged him at Prime Minister's Questions to commit to a date, as more than 35,000 people have now died in the UK.
Mr Johnson announced 24,000 workers have been recruited to staff the track and trace programme. They will be tasked with finding all those who have come into contact with people with COVID-19 symptoms and will tell them to self-isolate.
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"We have growing confidence that we will have a test, track and test operation that will be world-beating and yes it will be
in place by June 1," he said.
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