London Mayor Sadiq Khan | Richard Heathcote/Getty Images Sadiq Khan: London ‘nowhere near lifting the lockdown’ London mayor said the UK capital is still seeing ‘too many people losing their lives.’

London's lockdown will almost certainly continue beyond next week, the city's Mayor Sadiq Khan told the BBC Wednesday.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today program, the mayor said he regularly speaks to medical experts to assess the pandemic's impact on the British capital and that he thought "the worst part of the virus is still probably a week and a half away."

"I think when the prime minister announced the lockdown just over two and half weeks ago, he said he would review it in three weeks’ time which is this Monday," Khan said, adding: "I think we’re nowhere near lifting the lockdown."

"In London we lost 224 lives yesterday, so we’re still, I’m afraid, on a daily basis seeing too many people losing their lives," he said. "At the moment thankfully we’ve got some spare capacity in intensive care units in London but we can’t be complacent at all."

Khan also thanked the British government for working closely with him, although he said it was still unclear who counted as an "essential worker."

"I think there are still too many people leaving home to go to work when they shouldn’t be doing so," he said.

Khan would not be drawn on whether London could follow Paris in banning outdoor exercise during the daytime but said it was important people didn't "sunbathe, have barbecues at the park or play team sports."