Boris Johnson could scrap regional lockdown tiers and continue with a national lockdown even once coronavirus infection rates fall, it has emerged.
It would mean restrictions begin to ease, perhaps with fewer restrictions on travel or some shops allowed to re-open, but the changes would be introduced across the whole country at once.
And regions with low levels of infection would need to have the same tough rules as those were infection rates remain high.
Downing Street declined to confirm or deny it was considering the change in policy, first reported by the Daily Mail, when the Prime Minister's spokesman spoke to journalists today.
The spokesman said: "By mid-February we will expect to have a clearer idea of the effect the vaccine programme is having on hospital admissions, deaths and the transmission rate.
"We will review that data in the week of February 15.
"We will then in the week of February 22 set out our plan for the gradual easing of restrictions, based on the evidence review
"I can't pre-empt the review."
He said decisions about any changes to the current national lockdown would be "based on the review and based on the latest scientific evidence and data."
The Daily Mail reports some Ministers believe that a national system, with the same restrictions everywhere, is the best way to prevent the virus spreading from high-infection areas to low-infection areas. It might also be less politically divisive.
Last year there was a high-profile row between the Government and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, when tougher rules were imposed on the North West than London.
Speaking in Parliament this week, the Prime Minister said he would set out plans for easing the lockdown on February 22 or shortly afterwards.
He said: "We will reach our target of offering a first dose to everyone in the top four priority groups by the middle of February. And at that moment we will be able to review our progress, judge the state of the pandemic, and the effectiveness of the vaccine.
"And then in the week beginning February 22 we will set out our plan not just for re-opening our schools but gradually to re-open our economy and our society and to get our lives back to as close to normal as possible.
"Now this will be a timetable that is inevitably going to be subject to adjustment.
"But I believe it will provide clarity and certainty about the way ahead, a roadmap that we can take together and use as a country to defeat the virus and begin steadily to reclaim our lives."
