South Yorkshire will move into tier three from 00.01 on Saturday, meaning 7.3 million people in England will be living under the toughest Covid rules.
Sheffield City region mayor Dan Jarvis said the move followed "extensive discussions" with ministers.
The rules will apply to all council areas in South Yorkshire - Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
Greater Manchester will be placed in the same tier on Friday, against local leaders' wishes.
Under tier three, England's "very high" level of alert, pubs and bars that do not serve substantial meals have to close, and there are further restrictions on households mixing.
Additional rules in South Yorkshire include the closure of betting shops, adult gaming centres, casinos, soft play centres and gym classes - though gyms will remain open.
It comes as a further 26,688 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Wednesday, while another 191 people were reported to have died within 28 days of a positive test.
It is the highest ever number of recorded daily cases. However, mass testing was not available during the peak of the pandemic, when daily cases were estimated to have reached as many as 100,000.
Health minister Edward Argar told MPs there have been more than 12,000 cases in South Yorkshire so far in October - more than in July, August and September combined - while the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care has reached more than half that seen at the height of the pandemic.
He said he was aware the measures would "entail further sacrifice", but "bearing down hard" would help to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Doncaster's infection rate was 316 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending 17 October, compared to 370 in Rotherham, 395 in Sheffield and 415 in Barnsley.
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