Russia's Sputnik V vaccine produced antibodies without "serious adverse effects" in early trials, the Lancet reports
Researchers say longer and larger trials are needed to prove it safe and effective
The number of new daily UK cases rises to 1,940 - the highest since the end of May
France sees a record rise in new infections with 8,975 reported
A man in his 50s is the first to die with coronavirus in New Zealand since May, health officials say
Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 83, is in hospital in Milan with coronavirus
Passengers returning to Wales from Portugal, Gibraltar and six Greek Islands now have to self-isolate for two weeks
Globally more than 23.6 million cases and 868,000 deaths have been confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins University
Today's live coverage was edited by Lauren Turner and Jasmine Taylor-Colemen, and our team of writers was: Jo Couzens, Penny Spiller, Yaroslav Lukov, Paul Kirby and Victoria Lindrea. Thanks for staying with us!
Philippa Roxby
Health reporter, BBC News
Early results from small trials on a Russian vaccine against Covid-19 have found it is safe and there were no serious side-effects in people.
“Encouraging” and “so far so good” are some of the reactions from scientists in the UK – but there is still, clearly, a long way to go.
Two small trials, with 38 people in each, were carried out in two hospitals in Russia.
Although the vaccine showed an antibody response in all participants in phase 2 (40 people), this doesn’t necessarily mean it would protect them from the virus.
That still hasn’t been established yet.
From these results, we can tell that the vaccine - named Sputnik V - appeared to be safe in healthy people between the age of 18 and 60 for 42 days, because that was how long the study lasted.
But what about older people and those with underlying health conditions who are most at risk of Covid-19 – how safe is it for them and over a longer period of time?
This can only be answered after much larger, long-term randomised trials where the people taking part don’t know if they are receiving the vaccine or a dummy injection.
These will also tell scientists how effective the vaccine really is among a much wider population.
There have also been calls for openness and transparency. Of the many vaccines currently being trialled around the world, some will work better than others in certain situations and in certain groups of people, perhaps.
So knowing exactly how well they work and for whom is paramount – it is unlikely that one vaccine will be suitable for everyone.
Image source, ReutersAnd here are the main developments around the world in the past 24 hours:
Image source, EPASoon we will be pausing our live coverage - but before we do, here's a reminder of today’s main headlines from the UK:
Image source, ReutersBusinesses including soft play centres, bowling alleys and casinos can finally reopen across the north of England from Tuesday.
The extra Covid-19 restrictions imposed on Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire are being eased.
It means that from Tuesday, casinos, skating rinks, bowling alleys, exhibition halls, conference centres, and indoor play areas will be able to reopen throughout Greater Manchester - apart from Bolton, where these restrictions will remain in place - Lancashire and West Yorkshire.
And indoor swimming pools, including water parks, indoor fitness and dance studios, indoor gyms and sports courts and facilities will also be able to open in Leicester and the remaining parts of Blackburn with Darwen and Bradford, where restrictions had not already been eased.
Meanwhile, Newark and Sherwood, Slough and Wakefield will be removed from Public Health England's list of "areas of concern".
And Leeds, South Tyneside, Corby, Middlesbrough and Kettering have been added to the watchlist, Mr Hancock confirmed.
Norfolk, Rossendale and Northampton are being added as "areas of enhanced support", which means the government will work with local authorities to provide additional resources - such as testing or contact tracing - to help bring the numbers of infections down.
Image source, James GlossopScottish Opera is beginning live performances again with a string of pop-up shows across the country - with musicians behind screens and singers staying three metres apart.
It is the first national performing arts company in Scotland to stage a live show for a real-life audience. Like everyone else, they've been making virtual work online.
The shows kick off in Glasgow with six performances of La Bohème for an audience of just over 100 people per night sitting in a car park.
Tickets for the five initial shows were quickly snapped up, so much so that extra seating and an extra performance had to be added.
There have been more than 340,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far in the UK and more than 40,000 people have died, government figures show.
However, these figures include only people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus - and other measures suggest the number of deaths is higher.
Daily confirmed cases began edging up again in July - after falling significantly from their April peak - as lockdown restrictions imposed in March were eased.
Today, the government said there had been 1,940 newly-confirmed cases.
The official number of confirmed cases during the peak in the UK underestimated the true level of infection at the time, as widespread testing was not as available until mid-May.
The increase in testing , externalpartly explains the rise in daily cases in July - if you are testing more, you are likely to find more cases.
But despite some local outbreaks, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England remained stable in the week to 25 August, according to the Office for National Statistics.
And the apparent rise in cases since July has not, however, translated into an increase in people being admitted to hospital.
There are several local hotspots in the UK which have seen a spike in cases since the nationwide lockdown ended.
Public Health England produces a weekly watchlist , externalof areas of concern, based on an assessment of incidence rates, and other indicators such as trends in testing, healthcare activity and deaths.
Read more here and find out how the pandemic has affected the area you are in.
Jobs in Canada continue to grow, new labour market numbers say.
Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the economy had added 246,000 jobs in August. When added to the 419,000 new jobs in July, and 1.2m added in May and June, employment is now just about 5.7% shy of its pre-coronavirus levels in February.
As of the week of Aug 15, about 1.8m Canadian workers are affected by the Covid-19 shutdown, either because they are unemployed or have had their hours reduced. In April, this number reached a peak of 5.5 million.
Most of the employment gains have been in full-time work, the statistical agency said.
Additionally, the number of those working from home has decreased, from 3.4m in April to 2.5m in August.
Image source, ReutersFrance has reported 8,975 infections in the past 24 hours - the highest number of new infections since the start of the outbreak.
The authorities also say the number of patients in intensive care units has been rising in the past few days.
Image source, EPAEarlier on, we reported that patients taking part in early tests of a Russian vaccine developed antibodies with "no serious adverse events" (see our 15:29 entry).
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) now says it does not expect widespread immunisation against the virus until mid-2021.
The WHO acknowledged that a "considerable number" of vaccine candidates had entered final stage trials, which typically involve tens of thousands of people.
But WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris was quoted by AFP news agency as saying that "in terms of realistic timelines, we are really not expecting to see widespread vaccination until the middle of next year".
The UN health agency has said it will not endorse any vaccine without proof that it is safe and effective.
Officials say 56 people have tested positive at an asylum centre in Birmingham, in England's West Midlands.
Staff and residents at the Serco-run Stone Road Asylum Centre in Edgbaston are affected and the centre has been closed, the city council says.
Those infected have been moved to alternative accommodation where they can safely self-isolate.
Contact tracing is also under way and being carried out in the relevant languages of affected residents, the council says.
Image source, ReutersSwitzerland has reported more than 400 new infections in the past 24 hours for the first time since mid-April.
But health officials say that - despite 405 confirmed cases - the situation in the country is "stable", and the reproduction rate remains below 1.
Three-quarters of the new cases are in people aged under 40.
“At the moment we’re not talking of a second wave; we’re talking of a slow increase in infections," said Stefan Kuster, the head of the Swiss health ministry's communicable diseases unit.
"The efforts of the population and the cantons are bearing fruit," he added.
The Alpine nation of about 8.5 million people has so far recorded more than 43,000 infections, with over 2,000 deaths.
The infection rate in Leeds has been rising over the last few weeks
Leeds has been added to Public Health England's weekly watch list of areas of concern, after its seven-day infection rate rose to 32.4 cases per 100,000 people.
The city council said the data suggests a lot of the cases are in different areas of the city, meaning they may be linked to social interaction and leisure activities.
"The spread is broad and changeable across wards and cases have also been increasingly detected in younger people aged 18-34, with some concern over activities like house parties and gatherings," it said.
There will not be any further restrictions on Leeds at this stage but it does mean increased monitoring of cases and potential additional steps in future if the infection rates do not start to fall.
Council leader Judith Blake said: "This rise in infection rates means that inevitably, our window of opportunity is shrinking by the day and the city is rapidly approaching a tipping point."
Some 1,940 new daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the UK, the highest since 30 May, according to the latest government figures.
Ten more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, the government said, bringing the total death toll in the UK to 41,537.
The UK's testing capacity has increased since the peak of the outbreak earlier this year.
Image source, Derek BurtDerek Burt faces a race to get home to Scotland from the Algarve with his mother and children
All Derek Burt's mother wanted when she was diagnosed with terminal motor neurone disease (MND) six weeks ago was one last holiday with her family, he says.
"MND is such an evil and unpredictable disease. We have no idea if she will be able to go on a family holiday with us when all the Covid craziness is over, so had to make the tough decision and deliver on one of her wishes now."
With trips to Florida and Croatia already cancelled, they decided on Portugal when quarantine restrictions were lifted two weeks ago.
But now the family from Dunfermline in Fife is having to race to get home from the Algarve to beat the new restrictions that come into force at 04:00 on Saturday in Scotland.
Mr Burt says the family researched different holidays and tried to follow the guidance available, but "nobody has a clue what the governments are thinking".
Image source, ReutersHong Kong has now decided to extend by four days a China-backed mass coronavirus testing programme, despite concerns that it is not effective and could be misused for surveillance.
Officials said that only six people had been found infected among 128,000 people tested since the voluntary free programme was launched on Tuesday.
They say that overall more than 900,000 people have registered for such tests.
A health workers union has criticised the effort as an inefficient waste of resources, while activists have said it could be used by the authorities in mainland China to collect DNA samples.
Image source, Getty ImagesBoris Johnson has insisted "overwhelmingly the UK is proceeding as one" after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps admitted differing quarantine rules across the four nations was “confusing”.
During a visit to Solihull, the UK prime minister said the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have “different rates of infectivity, different approaches to the problem”.
He said digging below the surface “you will find overwhelmingly the UK takes the same approach".
The PM said quarantine measures for arrivals from countries deemed high-risk must remain "a vital part" of the fight against coronavirus.
He said he understands the difficulties the airline industry is going through, but that testing at points of entry only identifies 7% of the cases.
Here's a round-up of what is happening in the US:
There have been 159 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Scotland in the past 24 hours. This compares to 101 the previous day - an increase of 58 cases.
Seventy three of the new cases are in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area. Restrictions on visiting other households were reintroduced in Glasgow and two neighbouring areas on Tuesday.
Two new cases have been reported in the Western Isles for the first time since June.
There have been no new reported deaths of people who tested positive in the last 28 days.
Image source, ReutersVials with a Russian vaccine
Patients taking part in early tests of a Russian vaccine developed antibodies with "no serious adverse events", the Lancet medical journal has reported, quoting findings by several Russian scientists., external
But researchers said longer and larger trials were needed to prove the Sputnik V vaccine would be safe and effective.
Last month, Russia announced that the vaccine had been approved by the country's health regulatory body - a move that was met with scepticism in some countries.
A number of experts, particularly in the West, warned Moscow was moving too quickly, skipping a key stage required for research.
Russia has rejected the criticism as baseless.
President Vladimir Putin has said that one of his two daughters has already been vaccinated.
And of Friday, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was shown on Russia's state TV getting the jab himself.
Coronavirus vaccine: How close are we and who will get it?