The Government is hopeful the current restrictions will be England's last lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to set out how and when lockdown will end a week from today.
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether the Government wanted the current lockdown to be the last, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Absolutely, we very much hope so.
“Having a sustainable exit, so lifting the measures in such a way that can be sustainable and we don’t have to have another lockdown, that is obviously an important part of our considerations.
“For me, making sure that as we lift measures, we do so carefully and cautiously to make sure that we don’t have to put them on again, that is at the core of the judgment we have to make.”
Mr Hancock said the vaccine programme would help lift the restrictions as it reduced hospital admissions and Covid-related mortality, adding: “And there is also early evidence that it reduces transmission, so people who have been vaccinated we think have reduced transmission by about two-thirds, so this is really good news from the vaccine programme.
“We obviously want to see that actually in the data, not just from the trials but also see the impact of the vaccine programme on the number of hospitalisations and deaths falling.
“In some other countries, in Israel, which is one of the very few countries that is ahead of us in the vaccine rollout, you can see that very clearly, so that’s good news but this is what we will be looking at in the week to come.”
