Boris Johnson has confirmed the government will be introducing new measures to tackle rapidly rising coronavirus cases across the country.
The Prime Minister warned of "tough tough" weeks to come during a visit to Chase Farm Hospital in North London.
Mr Johnson was at the hospital to meet some of the first people to receive the Oxford vaccine on Monday.
He said there were "tough tough" weeks to come and added: "If you look at the numbers there's no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course."
Mr Johnson's comments come after Health Secretary Matt Hancock refused to rule out another national lockdown this morning.
Mr Hancock hailed the start of the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as an 82-year-old former maintenance manager became the first person to receive the jab outside of clinical trials.
He said the NHS has the capacity to deliver two million doses a week of the vaccine once it receives supplies from the manufacturers.
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But with the latest data showing a 33% rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus patients in hospital in England between Christmas Day and January 2, he warned there would be "some very difficult weeks" to come.
Asked about the prospect of another national lockdown, he acknowledged that the current restrictions are insufficient to control the spread of the disease.
He told Sky News: "We don't rule anything out, and we've shown repeatedly that we will look at the public health advice and we will take the public health advice in terms of what is needed to control the spread of the disease.
"This new variant is much easier to catch, it is much more transmissible, and we're now seeing the effect of that in lots of different parts of the country, unfortunately.
"And it means that, whereas the old Tier 3 was able to contain the old variant, that is proving increasingly difficult in all parts of the country."
