The UK government will open two new laboratories in Britain in early 2021 that will more than double the country's capacity for carrying out COVID-19 tests, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

These new "megalabs", one in Leamington Spa near the central English city of Birmingham, and the other in Scotland, will boost daily testing capacity by 600,000 when at full capacity.

UK health minister, Matt Hancock, was quoted as saying: "We didn't go into this crisis with a significant diagnostics industry, but we have built one, and these two mega labs are another step forward."

In addition to testing for COVID-19, these new labs are intended to boost Britain's diagnostic capabilities for critical illnesses, including cancer and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Reportedly, Britain had increased its daily testing capacity to 500,000 by the end of October from 100,000 at the end of April 2020.

Currently, the UK has the highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe, having crossed a tally of 50,000 last week.