Mayor Joe Anderson said he now fully expects new lockdown restrictions to be imposed on Liverpool later this week. Mr Anderson said he would not be surprised if the Government brought in measures for Liverpool, the whole of Merseyside and perhaps other areas of the north west.
He said: “We know there will be Government meetings to decide what happens next on Friday, but we fully expect to be affected by lockdown measures having gone over the 100 cases per 100,000 government threshold.
“We think this could well be part of a wider North West lockdown, because you can see cases are rising across the whole region.
“We think this could involve a ban on care home visits, with vulnerable people perhaps being told to shield again.
“We may see pubs and restaurants reduced to takeaway services and restrictions on households mixing, we will have to wait and see exactly what measures are brought in and will keep people informed.
“The numbers are continuing to go up and sadly have not slowed down at all, the only thing we can do now is to continue to try and urge people to do the right thing and follow all the safety measures at all times.
“We are expecting a lockdown now and are preparing and planning for that.”
Merseyside was placed on a Government watch list last Friday, but cases have continued to surge, especially in Liverpool, Knowsley, Wirral and St Helens.
Spikes in infection closely follow a major dip in coronavirus testing across the UK after a surge in demand.
Is Liverpool going into lockdown?
Ministers are meeting on Friday to discuss potential restrictions.
It looks likely the the north western city will face similar restrictions to areas with a similar infection rate that are already under restrictions.
Elsewhere, people in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford, Blackburn, Preston and other areas are currently banned from holding indoor meetings involving people from different households.
Bolton and Caerphilly have recently introduced additional restrictions for residents, after official figures showed a spike in cases.
The UK is currently in the grip of a national testing crisis, with COVID-19 tests in short supply and bugs in the booking system used by the Department of Health.
The Prime Minister and the Government have been heavily criticized for failing to prepare for a second wave.
Deputy leader Angela Rayner, who led the weekly questioning for the Labour Party, said he should “get some skates on” to ensure the country is ready for the winter ahead when infection rates are expected to soar.
“They’ve had six months to get this right and yet the Prime Minister still can’t deliver on his promises,” Ms Rayner said.
“The health secretary said yesterday it would take weeks to sort this situation out. We don’t have weeks.”
