Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster said heavier restrictions are "not inevitable" there while a senior DUP MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, questioned the need for a region-wide lockdown.
Mr Donaldson's comments followed reports that Stormont's chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride is advocating a six-week lockdown to halt spiralling infection rates.
The DUP parliamentary leader said such a proposal was far more extensive than what was being considered elsewhere in the UK or in the Irish Republic. "A six-week full lockdown, back to where we were last March, I think would take us way, way ahead of anywhere else," Mr Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show. "I would need to be convinced that such measures at the moment are