Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has not ruled out the whole of England being moved into Tier 4 restrictions.
He told BBC Breakfast: “We review which tiers parts of the country should be in on the basis of scientific evidence.
“The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) will be making a recommendation to ministers, but I can’t pre-empt that because it obviously has to be a judgment based on the medical situation.
“As you quite rightly point out, the NHS is under pressure and these are difficult months ahead.”
The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has said there will be a lag before the NHS feels the benefit of the Tier 4 restrictions imposed on London and the south east.
Dr Katherine Henderson told BBC Breakfast: “We will hope to start seeing the benefits in London of the Tier 4 restrictions and transmission rates but there is a big lag.
“All the people we are seeing at the moment were infected two weeks ago.”
She added: “It’s incredibly important that we don’t get another surge.”
Discussing New Year, she said: “Please, don’t take a chance on this, please don’t make it likely that we have an additional surge.
“Don’t mix, wear masks, wash your hands, keep separate – all the things we know we really need people to take very, very seriously.”
