GOVERNMENT scientific advisers said coronavirus infections and hospital admissions were exceeding the worse case scenario planning levels four days before Boris Johnson announced the three-tier system of restrictions.

In a document, Sage also says that projections indicate the number of deaths is “highly likely” to exceed Reasonable Worst Case Scenario (RWCS) planning levels within the next two weeks.

In the past seven days, East Lancashire hospitals have the recorded 30 coronavirus deaths and has 23 people on mechanical ventilators, the third highest in the country.

At a Downing Street press conference that day alongside Mr Johnson, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty – a member of Sage – said he was “not confident” that the “base case” for Tier 3 proposals “would be enough to get on top of it”.

Lancashire was one of the first areas to be put into a tier three lockdown but since then, the rates in Blackburn have now exceeded 800 per 100,000 as the tiered measures come under fire.

Ministers have continued to defend the use of regional measures today to tackle rising coronavirus cases in England despite mounting pressure to call a national lockdown.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government is “striving” to avoid issuing blanket restrictions nationwide as he insisted targeted measures could slow the growth in cases.

A document from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) summarising the meeting of October 8 said incidence and prevalence across the UK continue to increase with data showing “clear increases” in hospital and ICU admissions, particularly in the North of England.

The newly published Sage document comes as the effectiveness of the three-tier system is more widely being called into doubt, with the NHS Test and Trace system recording its highest ever weekly number of positive cases and a study by Imperial College London finding that almost 100,000 people are catching Covid-19 every day.

Experts are suggesting a more national approach is needed to address the soaring infection rate, with the expectation that the current trajectory is likely to result in nearly everywhere in England in at least Tier 2 before Christmas.

Since the three-tier system has been implemented, the number of deaths announced on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard has exceeded 100 on every day except two – and on a couple of days more than 300 deaths have been announced.

The document from October 8 also warns of the pressures faced by the NHS due to rising infections.

“If there are no decisive interventions, continued growth would have the potential to overwhelm the NHS, including the continued delivery of non-Covid treatments,” the paper said.

A circuit-breaker was at the top of a shortlist of coronavirus interventions recommended to the Government by Sage more than a month ago.