Cheshire West and Chester East have been added to the government's coronavirus watch list following a surge in cases.
The "watch list" is published each week on a Friday by Public Health England on the Gov.uk website.
The watch list highlights areas of concern across the country where coronavirus is making a comeback and also signals which places could face restrictive new lockdown measures in the near future.
Liverpool was added to the watch list on September 11.
Areas of concern are the focus of targeted actions to reduce the prevalence of coronavirus, for example receiving additional testing in care homes and increased community engagement with high-risk groups.
The news of Chester West and Chester East being added to the list comes as Merseyside has one final day before tougher new restrictions including stricter curbs on households mixing indoors come into force at midnight.
It comes in the week in which stricter lockdown measures were also placed on Warrington and Halton.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced local lockdowns for Warrington, Halton and the whole of Merseyside because of a rise in coronavirus cases and infection rates.
It means there is now a ban on social-mixing between people in different households in those areas.
Cheshire Live reports Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester are currently excluded from the new restrictions but councils have asked for more to be done.
Earlier this week, Cheshire West and Chester Council wrote to the government to ask for tougher measures to restrict households in the borough mixing.
CWaC leader Louise Gittins said: "We are proud of the response to the pandemic by our residents, who have made an inspiring commitment to fight this virus across west Cheshire. This has helped to contain levels of infection in west Cheshire at below the levels experienced in other parts of the North.
“However, concerning data indicates a rapid increase in infections and more vulnerable people being infected. Many infections are being caused by households mixing.
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"People are more comfortable in their own homes with family and friends, but people aren’t safe in those situations as the mixing of households is spreading the virus. Some who have COVID-19 do not have symptoms but could still pass it on to someone else who could go on to develop more lethal complications.
“We propose these decisive actions with a heavy heart. We recognise that further measures will have a negative impact on the wellbeing of many of the people affected by them, so they shouldn’t be considered lightly. But, by acting now rather than later, they would address some of the most frequent causes of transmission of COVID-19, by limiting the virus’s ability to pass between different households."
Leaders of Cheshire East Council have also applied for extra ‘enforcement powers’ from the government in its fight against coronavirus.
In a statement, CEC confirmed it wants additional measures to be put in place and has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
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Independent CEC deputy leader Cllr Craig Browne said: “We know that the idea of additional restrictions will be a concern for many people. Businesses are struggling. Our social lives have been affected. During lockdown we missed our families and friends, and we worried about the most vulnerable people in our community.
“We will do whatever we can to protect those vulnerable people, support businesses, and protect each other against this virus, but we believe that we need to take extra steps to do that and we need additional powers and resources from the government.
“We have already written to the Secretary of State for health to ask for additional powers over establishments that are not complying with the rules and resources to assist with contact tracing. We will continue to work with neighbouring councils, MPs and government to ensure that we are in the best possible position to fight Covid-19.”
As of today (October 2), Cheshire West and Chester has 2,776 cases of coronavirus.
Cheshire East 's latest figures show cases now total 2,987.
And in Warrington, their cases stand at 2,482. Halton has 1,484 confirmed coronavirus cases.
