England may not return to the regional tier system once the national coronavirus lockdown is over, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested.
The system has proved controversial among Islanders after the Isle of Wight moved from Tier 1 to Tier 4 in the space of a month in December.
At the time, council leader Cllr Dave Stewart blamed a "sharp rise in cases" for the move.
A national lockdown was imposed in early January and has been in place ever since.
Today (Monday), the Prime Minister said he thought a national approach "might be better this time round" than the regional tiers.
Mr Johnson told Sky News reporters in Batley, West Yorkshire:
"It may be that a national approach, going down the tiers in a national way, might be better this time round, given that the disease is behaving much more nationally.
"If you look at the way the new variant has taken off across the country, it's a pretty national phenomenon.
"The charts I see, we're all sort of moving pretty much in the same sort of way, I mean there are a few discrepancies, a few differences, so it may be that we will go for a national approach but there may be an advantage still in some regional differentiation as well. I'm keeping an open mind on that."
The tier system was originally put in place in the autumn last year.
Ministers have previously said they expect England to return to the regional structure.