Maddy Savage
BBC News, Stockholm

Image source, Reuters

Sweden never had a lockdown, but eight months into the pandemic the government has said it’s hoping to introduce a new temporary law which would limit the number of passengers on public transport and people allowed in shops.

Retailers could also see their opening and closing times regulated. Minister for Social Affairs Lena Hallengren told Swedish public broadcaster SVT on Monday that there was a need for “more precise tools” to limit activities that can play a role in the spread of Covid-19. She said that the government is aiming to have the new legislation in place by next summer.

The timescale says a lot about both Swedish decision-making and how long rule-makers here think the pandemic is set to last: “It is about restricting people's freedom of movement and freedom of trade, so it must be done very carefully,” said Hallengren.

The announcement comes amid growing media and public debates about rising passenger numbers on buses and trains, despite ongoing recommendations from Sweden’s Public Health Agency for people to work from home if possible.

A family says they received more than 60 calls from NHS Test and Trace.

Martin Usborne says a close family contact initially tested positive, followed by his wife Ann and their one-year-old daughter. And then the phone calls started.

Over the course of 10 days, Ann had 30 separate calls from NHS Test and Trace that she picked up - and another 27 calls that she missed. Martin himself received six calls.

"This really was not the easiest situation to deal with, particularly while looking after our two small children," Mr Usborne, from east London, told the BBC.

Some calls were made because Ann had been in close enough contact with a family acquaintance, who works in her home, while others were to tell her that her young girls (one and three years old) had been near the same person.

Read more here.

A gap between the start of Wales' two-week lockdown and the UK government's new Job Support Scheme is a "significant barrier" for firms trying to survive, a business group has warned.

The scheme to cover 67% of workers' wages is not due to start until 1 November - but the "firebreak" in Wales starts on Friday.

The Federation of Small Businesses urged the UK and Welsh governments to work together.

The Treasury said employers could use furlough until the end of October and that there was "no gap in funding".

But CBI Wales director Ian Price warned some people may fall between the cracks of furlough and the Job Support Scheme.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has declined to bring the scheme forward, but the Welsh government said it had offered to pay the difference in the cost of wage support of bringing the JSS forward a week.

Sunak said employees who have been furloughed for at least three weeks in the past can be refurloughed until 31 October.

However, people who have never been furloughed will not be covered.

The firebreak will see pubs, restaurants, cafes and non-essential shops shut for just over two weeks.

Image source, EPA

So how does the UK compare with anti-coronavirus measures being ramped up in other European countries. Here's a round-up of the latest developments in six of our continental neighbours.

A district in Bavaria will go under lockdown from 14:00 (12:00 GMT) this afternoon, the first area of Germany to do so since the spring. You can only leave home in Berchtesgadener Land for shopping, work or other valid reasons. The local infection rate over the past week has hit 272.8 per 100,000.

Compare that rate with Spain’s Navarre region, where infections have hit 945 cases in 100,000 residents. From Thursday, movement in and out of the area will be barred for two weeks and bars and restaurants will close, but takeaways will still be allowed.

Ireland’s strict level 5 measures come into force from midnight tomorrow and the cabinet meets today to consider what extra measures need to be taken. People across the country are being asked to stay at home - you can read more here.

Belgium has had its first night of curfew, allowing only essential movement from midnight to 5am. Another 269 Belgians have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

The Italian region of Lombardy has asked the national government to impose a regional curfew from Thursday, amid predictions of a steep rise in use of intensive care beds.

France has reported more than 2,000 people in intensive care for the first time since May. More than half the intensive care beds in the Paris region are in use.

Image source, Reuters

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi says £22m has been offered to Greater Manchester and warns that action is needed before intensive care units are overwhelmed - a claim denied by the city's medical leaders.

He says the government had been "negotiating in good faith for 10 days" with Greater Manchester leaders.

Speaking on the Today programme, Zahawi said: "It is right that we set politics aside and do the right thing for the people of Manchester."

But he criticised Mayor Andy Burnham's argument that tier three restrictions are ineffective, saying "You can't support Keir Starmer with a national lockdown yet don't support this additional targeted measure of tier three in Manchester."

Zahawi said the chance of running out of intensive care beds because of a lack of restriction "is not a risk that anyone wants to take".

On Monday, Burnham - along with Sir Richard Leese, the Labour leader of Manchester City Council - accused the government of using "selective statistics", external on hospital occupancy rates to bolster the case for tougher rules.

Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

Image source, Reuters

Test subjects in the UK could be exposed to coronavirus in controlled settings from January in a bid to speed up vaccine development.

The UK is pushing ahead to be the first nation to carry out the so-called "human challenge" studies, that would see up to 90 young and healthy people deliberately exposed.

The government is putting £33.6m towards the ground-breaking work.

Safety will be a number one priority, experts insist. And the plans will need ethical approval and sign off from regulators before they can go ahead.

Human challenge studies provide a faster way to test vaccines because you don't have to wait for people to be exposed to an illness naturally.

Researchers would first use controlled doses of the pandemic virus to discover what is the smallest amount that can cause Covid infection in volunteers aged 18 to 30.

Read more here.

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

On Monday evening, the two sides couldn't even agree on what they actually discussed earlier.

Believe the local leaders, and on Monday morning there seemed to be hope in the air. Officials from central government had mooted the possibility of a hardship fund to help support low-paid workers who stand to lose out if businesses close their doors under tighter restrictions.

The message local leaders took from their meeting was that, while the Treasury is adamant they are not going to extend their national furlough scheme - nor increase the level of cash available from its replacement, the Job Support Scheme - Westminster might sign off extra money that could be spent that way, if local politicians saw fit.

There was no concrete agreement on the numbers, but sources in Greater Manchester suggest the cost of supporting those who need the extra help comes in at around £15m a month.

After that call, the consensus among North West leaders was moving in the direction of signing on the dotted line, with another call planned with Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick for the afternoon.

But rather than ushering in a new spirit of co-operation, that meeting went south.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Hopefully that brings you up to speed with the latest situation in Greater Manchester (and Whitehall). But there is also plenty of other coronavirus news in other parts of the UK.

So what are those other headlines?

• Passengers flying from Heathrow to Hong Kong and Italy on Tuesday are to be given the option of paying for a rapid Covid test before checking in. It's the first time testing has been offered at a UK airport
• Prisoners being locked in their cells for 23 hours a day under Covid restrictions is dangerous, the chief inspector of prisons ,Peter Clarke, has warned
• A man who was the last patient to leave Blackpool Victoria Hospital's intensive care unit during the first wave of Covid-19 has died. Roehl Ribaya, of St Annes, Lancashire, is thought to have died from the long-term effects of the virus
• Hospital staff in one of Scotland's Covid hotspots have shared a sense of foreboding over what they will face in the coming months. NHS Lothian has one of the highest rates of positive tests with more than 1,000 new cases in the past week - and hospital admissions are rising dramatically

When he was speaking on BBC Breakfast a little earlier, Andy Burnham said he was seeking a resolution with the government - and was not posturing.

The Greater Manchester mayor saidt: "I'm coming along today to say I still want to work to try and get a resolution, but I just hope your viewers will understand that this is not about politics.

"I have the support of Conservative MPs here for what I am saying - it is not posturing."

He confiirmed that - if tougher local restrictions are imposed - he would tell people to follow the law.

But he said: "I do worry that if the government is going to go down this route of imposing these punishing lockdowns on local areas, I think it will lose the public support that it will need to try and help us all as a country rise to the fight against this pandemic this winter."

Here are the latest figures, as of Monday afternoon. We'll have another update on the number of UK cases later today.

Image source, PA Media

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has been talking this morning about the upcoming deadline.

He said a "late-night ultimatum" of the noon deadline was "slightly provocative" - but that he was "not going to rise to that".

Mr Burnham told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is fair to recognise if you put a place under restrictions for as long as we've been under restrictions, it grinds people down, it pushes businesses closer to the brink.

"I've noticed in recent days how London is calling out for support being in tier two - I support people in that call - but I hope people will support us, recognising the position we are in."

It is about "standing up for people and businesses that otherwise are going to be seriously harmed by a lockdown that at this point in time is not fully funded", he said.

"This is about people who work in pubs, who work in bookies, people who drive taxis - generally the people who Westminster politicians ignore," he added.

• There have been 10 days of talks so far between the government and local leaders, including mayors and MPs
• They have so far resisted the area's 2.8m population moving to the "very high" alert level of tier three, which would mean additional restrictions on households mixing, and the closure of pubs and bars that do not serve meals
• The local leaders want more financial support before agreeing to the move, with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham saying the governments needs to better protect low-paid people
• Last Friday, the prime minister warned he "may need to intervene" if an agreement was not reached
• And Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has since said he would be advising the PM if there is no deal, and that he would decide on the next steps
• There is a noon deadline to get to any such agreement, which would include what funding and support was available for people in the region

Image source, Reuters

There are less than four hours to go until the noon deadline that Greater Manchester leaders have been given to reach a deal with the government over moving the region into tier three coronavirus restrictions.

Talks are ongoing this Tuesday morning. The local leaders want more financial support before agreeing to the move.

But it's thought Prime Minister Boris Johnson could step in to impose the top tier rules if no agreement is reached. We'll bring you the latest on what is decided.