More than 400,000 people have signed up to act as NHS volunteers to support vulnerable people during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Prime Minister, speaking at the daily press conference inside Number 10, said he wanted to offer a “special thank you to everyone who has now volunteered to help the NHS”.
“When we launched the appeal last night, we hoped to get 250,000 volunteers over a few days," he said.
“But I can tell you that in just 24 hours, 405,000 people have responded to the call.”
It comes after the Health Secretary announced the new scheme to recruit a quarter of a million volunteers on Tuesday.
Matt Hancock said the drive for volunteers would help support the NHS and local services in the fight against Covid-19.
He said the volunteers will help the NHS with shopping, the delivery of medicines and supporting those who are shielded to protect their own health.
Responding to the staggering number of volunteers who had signed up on Wednesday, Mr Hancock said: "I owe you a debt of thanks and the country is proud."
In a video posted on Twitter, he said: "Yesterday I put out a call saying we needed a quarter of a million volunteers to help our NHS and I'm thrilled that we've hit that target within 24 hours.
"This shows just how much the great British public wants to help and are pulling together in the national effort to tackle coronavirus.
"I'm incredibly grateful to each and every one of you that we've hit this target this quickly."
Announcing how many people had signed up to volunteer on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said the applicants would be "crucial in the fight against this virus".
"That is already, in one day, as many volunteers as the population of Coventry," he told the second remote press conference.
“To all of you, and to all the former NHS staff who are coming back now into the service, I say thank you on behalf of the entire country.”
Mr Johnson also said that the Government was “massively ramping up our testing programmes” and hoped to be conducting 250,000 tests a day “very soon”.
Professor Chris Whitty said there were shortages along many supply chains in the production of tests because “every country in the world is simultaneously wanting this new thing”.
He added: “It’s not that there is no testing going on, what we need, clearly, is to be able to scale it up.”
