An end to the national lockdown is a “long, long, long way” off, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The Government had previously said the lockdown would continue in England until at least the middle of February.

However, it’s long been feared the shutdown would need to last longer.

And speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Mr Hancock sought to lower expectations about an end to the nationwide stay at home order.

Here are three of the main reasons the lockdown seems a long way from being over – even as thousands receive doses of a Covid-19 vaccine every day across the country:

1 – ‘You can see the pressure on the NHS every day’

Three quarters of all those over 80 in the UK had now been vaccinated, with a similar number of those in care homes, Mr Hancock said.

However, he also warned that case numbers were “incredibly high” and the NHS remained under intense pressure.

“There is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down but we are a long, long, long way from being low enough because the case rate was incredibly high,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

“You can see the pressure on the NHS – you can see it every day.”

Deaths continue to be reported every day at hospitals, including Salisbury District Hospital.

2 – Worries about new variants

Mr Hancock confirmed 77 cases of a new strain of coronavirus first found in South Africa have been detected in the UK.

Some scientists are worried variants from South Africa and Brazil may prove resistant to Covid vaccines.

And Mr Hancock said he was worried there were other, undiscovered, strains of coronavirus out there.

“The new variant I really worry about is the one that is out there that hasn’t been spotted,” he told Sky News.

3 – Social distancing must continue, even if you’ve had the vaccine

It’s not just Mr Hancock urging caution and warning we will all have to follow the strict lockdown rules for a while yet.

The deputy chief medical officer for England, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, has called on those people who have been vaccinated to keep following the rules on social distancing.

The latest Government figures showed the number receiving the first dose of the vaccine across the UK has passed 5.8 million, with a record 478,248 getting the jab in a single day.

But the professor has explained we do not yet know if the immunisation programme stops those vaccinated from passing on the virus.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Prof Van-Tam said it was still not known if people who had received the jab could still pass on the virus to others, even though they were mostly protected from falling ill themselves.

“If you change your behaviour you could still be spreading the virus, keeping the number of cases high and putting others at risk who also need their vaccine but are further down the queue,” he said.

Get more Salisbury news.

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.