Health Secterary Matt Hancock was unable to rule out an extension to the lockdown as a health chief warned the tiered system that ministers want England to return to may have to be strengthened.
The Health Secretary said it was “too early for us to know” whether coronavirus cases will be brought down sufficiently to ease the second shutdown on December 2.
Boris Johnson hopes the nation will return to local restrictions, but Public Health England’s Dr Susan Hopkins – standing alongside Mr Hancock at the Downing Street press conference on Monday – said the lowest tier of earlier measures had had “little effect”.
Dr Hopkins, who is advising the Government’s Covid-19 response, said they would have to consider strengthening the measures “to get us through the winter months until the vaccine is available for everyone”.
And Mr Hancock said the Government does not yet have the data to understand the impact of lockdown - or whether it can be lifted.
“It is too early for us to know what the number of cases will be as we come to the end of the current lockdown,” the Health Secretary said.
“But we absolutely hope to be able to replace the national lockdown with a tiered system similar to what we had before.”
Dr Hopkins said that Tier 2 of the local restrictions appeared to have worked in some areas but “not so well in others”.
“We see very little effect from Tier 1 and I think when we look at what tiers may be there in the future, we will have to think about strengthening them in order to get us through the winter months until the vaccine is available for everyone,” she added.
The Government announced a further 213 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday, bringing the UK total to 52,147.
The Prime Minister is continuing to self-isolate after a meeting with MP Lee Anderson, who tested positive for Covid-19.
