Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham has said that refusing the new Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions is "not an option" as he hosted a press conference.
Liverpool City Region was placed under the harshest Tier 3 restrictions in the government's new lockdown system.
Cases in the region have rocketed across the six areas in the City Region, with the latest figures showing Halton has 342 cases, Knowsley has 611, Liverpool has 635, Sefton has 409, St Helens has 368 and Wirral has 259.
Director of Public Health Matt Ashton said there has been a "rapid increase" in positive cases since the start of September and that the exposure to the virus was coming from lots of different sectors in the city.
The case rates are increasing for all age groups, putting hospitals under pressure and Mr Ashton said that there would be an increase in deaths as the interventions take a couple of weeks to have an impact.
He said: "It is absolutely essential we do everything in our power to control and stop the spread of the virus."
Mayor Rotheram echoed Mr Ashton's statement and said there was a "real and present danger that our NHS could be overwhelmed."
He said that the "situation here is worse than in many areas of the country" but that "we won't be the last region going into Tier 3."
Mayor Rotheram said: "Let me be clear: if you are unhappy about pubs and gyms closing - blame the mess that the government have made of their handling of this crisis.
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"What is being portrayed as a ‘negotiation’ between us and them was anything but.
"The Government had already made up their minds before they ever started talking to us that we were going into Tier 3. How do we know? Because we read it on the front page of The Times last week.
"We’ve all had people saying to us ‘why don’t you just say no? Don’t agree to this’. The fact is that - with or without our support - our region was heading for Tier 3 tomorrow.
"We weren’t prepared to let that happen without fighting for the funding we need - to protect the jobs, businesses and, above all, the health of the 1.6 million [people] we represent.
"I’ll be honest, there wasn’t a lot we could do to stop these restrictions by the time the Government came to us - but we are doing all that we can to help ease the pressure on local people and businesses."
