London, Jul 16 (IANS): UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that there will be an independent inquiry into the country's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the inquiry will only take place once the pandemic was over, Xinhua news agency quoted Johnson as saying during the Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister added that this was not the right moment to devote time to an official inquiry while the virus is still being fought.

"But of course we will seek to learn the lessons and there will be an independent inquiry."

Asked about whether the government was properly prepared for a second wave of the pandemic by the opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, Johnson insisted the government will do absolutely everything in its power to prevent a second spike.

With 144,000 people already agreeing to self-isolate, the Prime Minister said the test-and-trace system is "as good as or better than anywhere else in the world".

"Seventy or 80 per cent of contacts are found," he added.

"Of course we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened."

Meanwhile, Downing Street was unable to give any further details about the nature of the inquiry when pressed on whether it will be judge-led or when it will begin, saying that the remit would be set out "in due course", the BBC reported.

The development comes as the UK has reported a total of 293,469 COVID-19 cases so far, with 45,138 deaths.