Thanks for joining us for our coverage of the announcement of, and reaction to, new tier three - very high alert regulations for Lancashire.

To read more about the new regulations, which come into effect tomorrow, follow this link.

The new measures, which will be reviewed every two weeks, cover all parts of Lancashire:

• People must not socialise with anybody they do not live with, or have formed a support bubble with, in any indoor setting or in any private garden or at most outdoor hospitality venues and ticketed events
• People from different households can still meet in an outdoor public space such as a park or beach, the countryside, a public garden or a sports venue, in groups of six or less
• All pubs and bars must close, unless they are serving substantial meals
• Residents should avoid staying overnight in another part of the UK, and others should avoid staying overnight in the area
• People should try to avoid travelling outside the very high alert level area or entering the very high alert level area, other than for essential journeys or to travel through as part of a longer journey
• From Monday, casinos, bingo halls, bookmakers and betting shops and soft play areas must close and car boot sales will not be permitted

The latest government figures show that four council areas in Lancashire - Burnley, Pendle, West Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen - are among the ten places with the highest rates of Covid-19 in England.

The figures show that in the week leading up to 13 October, the numbers of cases per 100,000 people were as follows:

• Burnley - 536.4
• West Lancashire - 469.8
• Pendle - 465.7
• Blackburn with Darwen - 438.2

Nottingham currently has the highest rate per 100,000 people in England - 807.4 - while the national average stands at 159.2.

Lancashire and Liverpool City Region are to be prioritised as trial areas for a new quick Covid-19 test which gives results in about 15 minutes, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.

Image source, Reuters

Scientists have developed faster and cheaper tests, Mr Johnson said, and it's "becoming clear" that some of these are "highly effective".

Local health teams in high-infection areas will be "prioritised" in getting testing kits, he said.

Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram and city mayor Joe Anderson have tweeted a joint statement demanding answers from the government over why gyms have not been forced to close in Lancashire as it faces tier three - very high alert restrictions.

Steve Rotheram said they were were "given no say" in the matter and there is now a "two-tiered system of tiers".

The leader of Blackpool Council says it is "hugely regrettable that we are in this situation and moving into tier three [very high alert]".

Image source, Blackpool Council

Labour councillor Lynn Williams said:

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is giving a press conference update on the situation with the pandemic around the country.

He said he was grateful to people in local government "hotspot areas" who have worked "constructively" with him.

"Tough discussions" had to be made in Lancashire, he said, but they were "necessary".

He insisted there was "significant support" for workers affected.

Daniel Wainwright
BBC England Data Unit

Parts of Lancashire continue to be among the worst affected for new Covid cases, while the county's hospitals are also among the highest in England for new coronavirus admissions.

In Burnley, there were 517 new confirmed cases in the week to 12 October, up by about a third on the week before.

West Lancashire, Pendle and Blackburn with Darwen were also in the 10 areas of England with the highest rates of new cases per 100,000 population.

Weekly data on hospital admissions shows 105 patients at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals were admitted or diagnosed with Covid-19 in the week to 11 October.

The Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS trusts each recorded 57 patients in the same week.

Elsewhere in England, the hospital trust with the highest number of new admissions and diagnoses was Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust, which had 255.

Another 125 were recorded at University Hospitals Birmingham, which is England's biggest hospital trust, while 110 were admitted or diagnosed at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

Image source, AFP

Lancashire was "bullied" by the government into going into the highest Covid alert level, three council leaders from the county have claimed.

In a joint statement, Matthew Brown and Mohammad Iqbal, leaders of Preston and Pendle councils, said the prime minister's officials, led by Sir Ed Lister, were "unwilling to listen to any evidence".

The leaders said the government did not present a plan on how the government's proposals would control the virus, and threatened to impose them with less generous financial help if they did not fall into line.

The council leaders said schools, shops, workplaces and a minority of non-compliant individuals were behind the majority of coronavirus transmission, but officials told them these and other areas were "off-limits" and "non-negotiable".

The statement read: "Throughout the negotiations, government officials were only interested in the politics and threatened any district leader who did not fall into line.

"Their borough would become an island that would receive much less in funding and resource."

Pendle Council leader Mohammad Iqbal said: "Many of us are extremely unhappy at the level of the deal. We feel we've been left with no alternative but to agree a deal with government simply to try and protect some businesses across Lancashire.

Paul Foster, leader of South Ribble Council, echoed the views, describing the discussions as a "complete shambles".

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had "worked intensively with local leaders" to agree the move.

The owner of a party and play centre in Nelson, which opened 14 years ago, said she was "massively disappointed" by the decision to close soft play areas.

"It feels like we are being singled out and treated differently," said Nicola Nuttall, from Giddy Kippers. "Why is it safe to go to a gym or trampoline park but not a soft play centre?"

The business only reopened three weeks ago following the lockdown in March. "We were given a 24-page document of things we have to comply with," Ms Nuttall continued.

The company has "jumped over every hurdle that been put in front of us" and it now feels like the industry is being "sacrificed again", she said.

"I am massively disappointed that local leaders didn't stick to their guns in the way Andy Burnham has done."

Council public health officials in Lancashire say the county is at a "very dangerous phase of the pandemic".

Image source, PA Media

Lancashire's Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Blackburn with Darwen's Prof Dominic Harrison and Blackpool's Dr Arif Rajpura said in a joint statement:

They added that it was "critical to get the virus under control" and urged the public to follow the Covid-19 rules.

The managing director of bookmaker Dave Pluck was forced to close his premises in Merseyside on Wednesday, meaning the latest announcement for Lancashire is a double blow for the company.

Image source, Nick Thompson

Nick Thompson said:

About 1.5 million people will be affected by the new rules announced today, which covers all the Lancashire council areas, including Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool and Preston.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry said moving to tier three - very high alert was the right decision for the county, but insisted it was important to show people how restrictions are working.

He said:

Blackpool Council's chief executive Neil Jack said he wanted the whole of the Fylde Coast to stay in tier two - but his appeals were rebuffed by the government.

Image source, Reuters

He said:

Lancashire residents have been taking to social media to share their views.

The following comments were posted on the Radio Lancashire Facebook page, external:

Preston pub owner Antony Anderson, who runs Sir Tom Finney pub in Penwortham and city centre bar No. 16 On The Hill, said tier three rules make will make trading "impossible".

Image source, Antony Anderson

He said:

Image source, PA Media

The landlady of The Steamer pub in Fleetwood said she was expecting the announcement but "it's not good news at all".

"We are doing everything we can to keep people safe," said Sheree Mead.

"Yes - we are a restaurant but will people come out? Are they too afraid to come out because of the spread?"

She added that "we really have to save our pubs," adding "towns need pubs".

"Hopefully we will come through it," she added.

Reality Check

Image source, The Pride Gym

The only government data on gyms comes from Public Health England's surveillance report, which is based on data from Test and Trace, external.

That data puts gyms on 3%, while supermarkets are 12%, pubs and bars are 10% and secondary schools are 5%. But what those percentages mean is a bit tricky.

In the week to 11 October, 73,561 people who had tested positive for coronavirus were referred for contact tracing.

Of those, 20,776 had been somewhere in the previous seven days that at least one other person contacted had visited.

About 620 of those said they had been to the gym. We don't know if they caught it at the gym - we just know they visited the gym.

Is that a lot? It's hard to tell - you need to take into account how many people visit a gym regularly compared with, for example, a supermarket.

The point is that for the latest week, gyms came sixth on the list of common locations, ahead of people going to university, people working in care homes and people going shopping for clothes.

And the government is bound to have noticed that.

Its scientific advisory group Sage reckoned that closing indoor gyms and leisure centres could potentially reduce the R number (that's the average number of people each infected person infects) by 0.1, external, but stressed that estimating that was "very difficult".