"This has been a disaster," Johnson told Times Radio on Monday.

"Let's not mince our words, I mean this has been an absolute nightmare for the country and the country has gone through a profound shock."

He said, though, that this was not the right time for an inquiry in the handling of the crisis.

Johnson, who spent time in intensive care battling COVID-19, said the government owed it to all those who have died and suffered to look at exactly "what went wrong and when".

"I totally understand that and we will. I happen to think that the moment is not right now, ... when everybody is flat out, I don't think the moment is right now for consecrating a huge amount of official time to all of that.

"But we are learning lessons the whole time."

Johnson said reports of him looking wraithlike were complete nonsense.

"When I came out of hospital I did notice there were occasional pieces in the papers saying I was looking a bit wraithlike, or something someone said," Johnson said.

"Complete nonsense I want you to know.

"I am feeling very well, yes thank you, again thanks to our National Health Service," he said.

Asked whether he thought every day about the high level of total deaths and infection rates in Britain from the novel coronavirus, Johnson said: "Every day ... What we've got is the curve going in the direction roughly that they thought it would. It is very slowly coming down."

"The crucial thing is to make sure that we're ready to crack down on local flare ups and that's why we have the wack-a-mole strategy."

Australian Associated Press