Health Secretary Matt Hancock has ruled out removing support or childcare bubbles during the national lockdown.
At a Downing Street press conference, Mr Hancock was asked if support bubbles would be removed to slow down the rate of infection.
A support bubble is where a household with one adult joins with another household (on an exclusive basis).
Households within a bubble can still visit each other, stay overnight, and visit public places together.
Some reports suggested they might be axed due to soaring infection rates. However, at a national press conference on Monday, January 11 Mr Hancock confirmed the rules would not be changed.
Mr Hancock said "we are at the worst point of this pandemic" as 46,169 new cases were recorded across the UK on Sunday.
At the moment, there are 32,294 people in hospital, with 926 average deaths each day over the past week.
Mr Hancock said the new variant of the virus is "highly contagious and putting the NHS under significant pressure."
He also stated that he would not rule out further measures to contain the spread.
But added: "I can rule out removing the support bubbles.
"I know how important they are to people and they are an important part of the support system we have.
"The bubbles are there for for specific people.
"You can't keep moving to other people. It's important to stick to the same bubbles and the bubbles policy will stay."
