Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Government is not considering easing lockdown measures in England until at least February 15.

Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, he said the current restrictions are “the right package of measures to deal with the new variant”, adding that public compliance with them is “the crucial thing”.

Mr Johnson said: “We really can’t begin to consider unlocking until we’re confident that the vaccination programme is working, until we’re confident that we don’t have new variants or changes in our understanding of the virus…

“I think the most important thing is we’ve got to be in a position where the rate of infection of the virus is not still so high, and it’s very high right now.

“So, for unlocking just to lead to another big rebound, I think that would be the wrong thing, the wrong way, to approach this.”