But the government was far less clear about how to relax restrictions later without causing another outbreak.

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary who is leading the British government while Prime Minister Boris Johnson recuperates from the virus, set out five prerequisites for easing restrictions, including a sustained and consistent decline in the daily death rates.

With 861 new deaths announced on Thursday — 100 more than the day before — Britain appears far from meeting that prerequisite, as well as others that Mr. Raab outlined.

Test blunder: The U.K. paid $20 million for new coronavirus tests from China in a global scramble for kits. They didn’t work.

Here are the latest updates, as well as maps of the pandemic.

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