More than 110 people are in Lancashire’s and South Cumbria's hospitals with coronavirus, public health officials have said.

No deaths however have been recorded in East Lancashire over the past 24 hours.

Professor Dominic Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “Despite some of the longest-running special control measures in place across parts of Lancashire, confirmed cases continue to rise.

“These rising rates risk not only increased hospitalisations and deaths but also our continued economic and social wellbeing. If the rates continue on their current trajectory we will have to take further control measures to ensure that enough of the workforce is able to be at work in key infrastructure services such as social care, the NHS, police and essential food production and distribution services.

“This week marks a critical point in the rising second wave. We need to stick closely to the control measures we currently have in place if we are to avoid the necessity of further measures.”

Restrictions limiting household mixing were put in place throughout all of East Lancashire boroughs last week, which brought some East Lancs areas back into local restrictions.

Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, director of public health for Lancashire County Council, said: "There are rumours that people aren’t getting ill, that hospital admissions are low. From someone who has been working on this from the beginning and speaks to frontline workers in our NHS every day, this is far from the truth.

"We are starting to see hospitalisations rise and unfortunately, with this, excess deaths will be inevitable, especially as we enter the difficult winter period.

"We’ve done one lockdown and I’m sure we took many positive experiences from that – spending more time outdoors appreciating nature, quality time with our loved ones and taking the time to slow down. But if we’re being honest, none of us want to go through that again, but what we are facing is a very real prospect of this.

"The restrictions in place now may seem draconian but they are far from a true lockdown scenario. We’re simply asking people to avoid mixing beyond their own households and be responsible. If we all take small steps to achieve that, we will get the numbers down in time."

The whole of Lancashire is now an area of intervention following a continued rise in Coronavirus cases. 

Strict measures limiting household mixing have been in place since last Tuesday (22 September). This is in addition to the national regulations announced by the Prime Minister in his address to the nation last week.