Coronavirus testing to be ramped up to 25,000 a day: UK PM

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that health authorities in Britain are planning to carry out more testing of the novel coronavirus by increasing it to 25,000 a day.

During the Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons (lower house), Johnson said Britain is getting "much closer" to having a generally available test to determine whether someone has contracted the virus.

Currently, the National Health Service (NHS) only has a nasal swab test that can detect the virus through laboratory analysis.

Johnson said the government is bringing forward emergency legislation to protect people from being evicted from their rent homes during the crisis.

The number of people tested positive for COVID-19 in Britain reached 2,626 as of Wednesday morning, an increase of 676 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the latest figure from the Department of Health and Social Care.