The national lockdown in England "should be able to" start being lifted in March, according to a senior government minister.
Michael Gove told Sky News on Tuesday, that the lockdown restrictions will progressively be lifted in the coming months and warned of "very, very difficult weeks ahead."
He said: "What we do know is that the more effective our vaccination programme, the more people who are protected in that way, the easier it will be to lift these restrictions.
"We will keep these constantly under review but you are absolutely right, we can't predict with certainty that we will be able to lift restrictions in the week commencing February 15-22."
Pressed on whether the lockdown was likely to last until March, Mr Gove added: "What we will be doing is everything that we can to make sure that as many people as possible are vaccinated, so that we can begin to progressively lift restrictions.
"I think it is right to say that as we enter March we should be able to lift some of these restrictions but not necessarily all."
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Mr Gove told Sky News that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will set out details of additional support for business in the third lockdown later on Tuesday.
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