WEST Yorkshire will be moving into Tier 3 from 12.01am on Monday.

The update came direct from Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake during a press conference.

It was initially reported by the Press Association that the new restrictions would come into force on Sunday, but it has been confirmed by West Yorkshire Combined Authority that the region will move from Tier 2 to Tier 3 on Monday.

Tier 3 is currently the highest state of coronavirus alert.

Here's what you can and can't do under Tier 3 restrictions

Leeds City Council’s chief executive Tom Riordan said a support package of £46.6 million had been negotiated with the Government for the region in addition to the Tier 2 funding already agreed.

He said there would also be an additional £12.7 million for testing and tracing.

LIVE: Latest updates as it's announced West Yorkshire WILL go into Tier 3

Julian Hartley, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, told a virtual press conference the city’s hospitals were currently caring for 268 Covid patients – a figure higher than in the first wave of the pandemic – and he expected this to keep rising for some days.

The BRI has already paused routine operations as it deals with rising numbers of patients.

The city’s director of public health, Victoria Eaton, said the latest case rate for Leeds is 416.7 per 100,000 people.

She said the city was the 35th in England in terms of the seven-day infection rate.

Ms Eaton said a “cause of concern” was that, for the first time on Wednesday, the age group with the highest number of cases was the 30 to 44-year-olds rather than the 16 to 29-year-olds.

She said the situation is “incredibly challenging at the moment”.

Covid-19 case rates in England are rising for all age groups except 10 to 19 year-olds, according to the latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England.

The highest rates are currently among 20 to 29-year-olds, where the rate was 333.2 cases per 100,000 people in the week to October 25, up from 306.6 in the previous week.

The rate among 30 to 39-year-olds was 274.1 per 100,000, up from 213.8.

For the 70-79 age group the rate was 110.0, up from 88.0, while for people aged 80 and over it was 156.7, up from 125.6.