Local lockdowns could be imposed in Covid hotspots to prevent infections spreading, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said he could not rule out enforcing tougher restrictions in some areas if there are Covid spikes.
The move would come as a last resort as ministers want to avoid a return to the tiered system imposed across England last autumn, he said.
Infections and deaths from Covid have plummeted following the success of the vaccine rollout and the third lockdown in England.
But cases have risen in place like Hyndburn and Blackburn in Lancashire, as well as Selby in Yorkshire, and Bolton.
Mr Eustice said the government was "monitoring the situations carefully" but it was unclear whether increases in infections are being driven by variants or people failing to follow the rules.
He told Sky News: "We're not quite sure what could be driving it whether it's particular variants that are taking hold there whether it's that in certain areas, people are perhaps being a bit too lax about the restrictions that remain in place.
"So we're unclear about that but we are monitoring these situations, carefully but overall, the picture is a good one, where we've got falling incidence of the virus, and obviously with the success of the vaccine rollout as well far fewer hospitalisations and deaths are at a very low level."
Asked about the possibility of local lockdowns, Mr Eustice told Sky News: "Well, we can't rule anything out that... our plan that's been set out by the Prime Minister, the reason we're being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown is, we want this to be the last.
"We want to try to avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation we tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we have to go for a full lockdown."
The focus is on the vaccine rollout, which is reducing hospitalisations and deaths, he said.
Mr Eustice added: "But there is always a risk and the greatest response we have is that a new variant that will come in that is the vaccine is less effective against and that's why we're a country that's got the best ability in the world to do genome sequencing on these new variants wherever they might be."
Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Lancashire director of public health, warned that he expected another surge in cases after lockdown rules are further loosened next week.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if opening up further could cause problems in areas with already high case rates, he said: "We are all expecting there will be another surge in the cases, but we also know that we have protected the most vulnerable.
"So unless the new variants are going to escape vaccines or are they going to cause more severe disease, that causes problems with the NHS for instance, I think what we will see is the cases going up again, but hopefully that will be it.
"But there's a real uncertainty in terms of the variants and how severe they are going to be."
