Three English cities could face restrictive measures after an IT blunder saw almost 16,000 coronavirus cases go unreported – with local leaders blasting the Government for a “catastrophic failure”

Thousands more coronavirus cases have been recorded in areas like Leeds 

The three English cities saw a combined 3,758 additional positive cases officially recorded after a major computing error, which potentially puts them on the verge of new restrictions.

The glitch was caused by Downing Street officials using an outdated Excel spreadsheet format which was not capable of displaying all the lines of data, and is the latest in a series of embarrassing blunders from the Government over its handling of the pandemic.

Public Health England on Sunday admitted a total of 15,841 cases were left out of daily reported figures between September 25 and October 2.