London (dpa) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted to mistakes in his government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, in a media interview on Saturday marking one year since he took office.

"Of course ... there are things we get wrong and we're learning the whole time," Johnson told Sky News.

"You've got to learn from your mistakes as fast as possible," the Conservative leader said, predicting that the worst of the health crisis will be over "by the middle of next year."

Britain has been the hardest-hit country in Europe in terms of coronavirus cases, with many experts predicting a second wave of infections in the autumn.

Johnson's government has come under fire for its coronavirus response, which a number of experts have said was too late and misguided.

The prime minister himself was hospitalized with Covid-19, the lung disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but has since recovered.

Prior to his illness, he had bragged about shaking hands with infected patients.

In an interview with the BBC aired on Friday evening, Johnson said, "We didn't understand [the virus] in the way that we would have liked in the first few weeks and months."

The virus' ability to spread asymptomatically from person to person was underestimated, he noted.

As for whether Britain's lockdown restrictions came too late, Johnson merely told the broadcaster there were "very open questions" for scientists yet to be answered.