England’s lockdown might be eased nationwide rather than on a regional basis, Boris Johnson has said.
The prime minister is due to set out his approach on February 22 for how and when rules might be relaxed.
When he announced the current nationwide lockdown at the start of January, Johnson said it would be lifted in “a steady, controlled and evidence-led move down through the tiers on a regional basis”.
But speaking to reporters in Yorkshire on Monday, the prime minister strongly hinted the regional approach could be scrapped.
“It may be that a national approach, going down the tiers in a national way, might be better this time round, given that the disease is behaving much more nationally,” he said.
“If you look at the way the new variant has taken off across the country, it’s a pretty national phenomenon.
“The charts I see, we’re all sort of moving pretty much in the same sort of way. I mean, there are a few discrepancies, a few differences, so it may be that we will go for a national approach, but there may be an advantage still in some regional differentiation as well. I’m keeping an open mind on that.”
Johnson added he was “optimistic” people will be able to enjoy a summer holiday this year.
But added: “The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful. We have got to make sure we don’t get thrown off course by new variants. We have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down.”
It came as it was announced around 80,000 people in England are to receive door-to-door Covid testing after the discovery of 11 cases of the South African coronavirus variant in people who hadn’t travelled to the country.
Downing Street also said on Monday all eligible care home staff have been offered a coronavirus vaccine.
But the government had also set itself a target of offering a vaccine to all care home staff by the end of January.
While No.10 said that had been met, social care minister Helen Whately told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme the government needed “a little more time” to achieve that pledge.
Government data up to January 30 shows 9,468,382 jabs have been given so far, with almost 600,000 people given the vaccine on Saturday alone.