Thanks for joining our live coverage of the pandemic today. We're now bringing the live page to a close but will be back tomorrow.

The page was written by Jo Couzens, Alexandra Fouche and Mary O'Connor and edited by Alex Therrien and Paul Gribben.

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We'll soon be pausing our coronavirus live page, but before we do here is a round-up of the main stories today:

• Covid could resemble the common cold by next spring as people's immunity to the virus is boosted by vaccines and exposure, a leading expert has said. Prof Sir John Bell, who was part of the team that developed the AstraZeneca vaccine, said things "should be fine" once winter has passed
• His comments come after Prof Sarah Gilbert, who designed the Oxford vaccine, said Covid was likely to become like other seasonal coronaviruses that cause common colds

• New data from Public Health England estimated that England's coronavirus vaccine rollout prevented 123,100 deaths and 230,800 Covid hospital admissions in people aged 45 and over. On Thursday, the UK recorded another 36,710 new coronavirus cases, and a further 182 deaths within 28 days of a positive test
• The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has recommended no change to the nine Covid-19 restrictions still legally enforceable in the country. The restrictions include social distancing and mask wearing in some indoor hospitality and retail settings
• The European Medicines Agency has said it expects Pfizer to submit vaccine data in children aged five to 11 years in early October and data from Moderna to be received in early November
• People are being evicted from their homes over rent arrears built up during the pandemic, an investigation has found, despite the government saying no-one should lose their home as a result of the crisis
• US drug regulators have approved Pfizer booster vaccines for people over 65 if they had their last shot at least six months ago

Image source, Getty Images

The UK's policy of not accepting Covid-19 vaccine certificates from Africa could increase vaccine hesitancy, the head of the continent's health agency has warned.

Dr John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the UK's stance was confusing and had far-reaching implications for vaccination campaigns.

He told a virtual briefing that some people in Africa would ask why they should take these vaccines if they were not recognised internationally.

He said it was "a message that creates confusion within our population... creating more reticence, reluctance for people to receive vaccines".

"This message doesn't really speak to solidarity and co-operation that we all believe are the cornerstone and ingredients for us to emerge from this pandemic together," he added.

The UK government this week amended its foreign travel guidance to clarify that the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine is now an approved jab.

Image source, STONEHENGE GUIDED TOURS UK

Hundreds of people have been given access to Stonehenge for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

About 250 druids, pagans and visitors gathered at the historical landmark in Wiltshire to watch the sunrise to mark the autumn equinox - the first official day of autumn.

Over the last two years, all solstice celebrations and equinox gatherings at the ancient monument have been cancelled by English Heritage.

Image source, ENGLISH HERITAGE

Jess Trethowan, from the charity, said the event had "felt really magical".

Earlier this year, hundreds of people attended the summer solstice at Stonehenge despite official advice asking them not to - in line with Covid restrictions.

The autumn equinox marks the point when the sun is positioned exactly above the equator and the day is the same length as the night.

It heralds the beginning of shorter days and longer nights.

You can read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

The EU's drugs regulator has said that it expects Pfizer to submit vaccine data in children aged five to 11 years in early October and data from Moderna to be received in early November.

The European Medicines Agency also said it will rule on Covid booster jabs in early October during its regular news briefing on Thursday.

The EMA said it was looking at expanding the number of options available for the prevention and treatment of severe Covid, including antiviral pills that could be used by people at home and antiviral monoclonal antibody treatments.

And now some more detail from the government's daily coronavirus figures.

The number of coronavirus cases is up 19,938 (9.4%) on the previous seven days, while the number of Covid-related deaths has risen by 34 over that period (3.5%).

However, the number of Covid patients being admitted to hospital is down by 1,080 (15.5%) on the previous week.

The UK has recorded another 36,710 new coronavirus cases, and a further 182 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to the latest government figures, external.

Image source, Getty Images

Children might be more susceptible to common illnesses this winter because of an "immunity debt" built up during lockdown, a Welsh government scientist has warned.

Dr Rob Orford, the nation's chief scientific adviser for health, said the re-emergence of respiratory diseases suppressed during the last lockdown could "put a spanner in the works".

There is a "great deal of uncertainty", he added, about what could happen next in the pandemic.

Speaking at a meeting of the Senedd's health committee he said: "We may have stacked up some immunity debt in the system where children have not been mixing with friends, and so they may be more susceptible to some of the illnesses we traditionally see."

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Image source, Reuters

England's coronavirus vaccine rollout is estimated to have prevented 123,100 deaths, according to new data from Public Health England.

It was previously estimated the vaccination programme had prevented 112,300 deaths.

The estimated number of hospital admissions for people aged 45 and over directly averted by the vaccine rollout in England remains the same at 230,800.

Jodie Davis
Consultant Statistician, Visual Journalism Statistics, BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Less than one ping was issued by the NHS Covid-19 app in England for every reported case in the week ending 15 September.

Some 160,334 cases were reported in this period, with 133,503 contact tracing alerts (pings) sent out by the app.

The number of pings issued for every reported case has been on a steady decline for the past two months, with levels now matching those observed in early to mid-May.

A total of 142,908 pings were sent out across England and Wales, a 33% decrease from the previous week.

BBC World Service

More than 100 countries will have to slash spending on vital services - such as health and education - because the pandemic has pushed them into even deeper debt, a new study has warned.

The report - by US researchers - says the world is underestimating the danger.

The study says Covid-19 has turned an existing debt problem into a full blown crisis.

Low-income countries have to find a way to pay their creditors, so they cut back hard on their public spending.

The study, external - by Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a group of UN member states, international organisations, members of civil society and the private sector which describes itself as working towards sustainable development goals - warns that unsustainable levels of debt will widen global inequalities.

It gives the example of Zambia - where the government now has to allocate almost half its annual revenue to service debts - leaving very little to spend on its people.

Researchers also say the International Monetary Fund has grossly underestimated the scale of the threat from debt distress.

The pandemic saw a 40% spike in the number of Scots dying at home last year, according to an end of life charity - which is concerned terminally ill people have not had access to vital care due to Covid.

Following a reduction in the number of non-Covid hospital admissions, the Marie Curie charity - named after the pioneering scientist and which has two Scottish hospices, in Edinburgh and Glasgow - said there were about 6,000 more deaths at home in Scotland, a 40% rise on the previous year.

In total, more than 63,000 people died in Scotland in 2020-21 - most of whom needed some palliative care, it added.

Palliative care is a medical approach which makes the terminally ill as comfortable as possible in their final months and weeks of life by optimising quality of life.

The charity said its health teams looked after more than 9,000 dying Scots throughout 2020-21 - the highest number since it was established in 1948.

Richard Meade, the charity's head of policy said staff have "worked tirelessly to ensure as many people as possible had an end of life experience which reflected what was most important to them".

But he said it was "extremely worrying" that some people may have missed out on care and support.

"With such an increase in the number of people dying at home during the pandemic, and despite the best efforts of health and social care teams, we are concerned that many people may not have received some or all of the care and support they needed in their final hours, days, weeks and months of life."

The Scottish government has said it plans to produce a new strategy for end-of-life and palliative care during this parliamentary term.

You can read more here.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Chinese national newspapers Global Times and China Daily are pushing a study - that has not been peer-reviewed - suggesting that Covid-19 could have been in the US as early as April 2019.

China Daily says that research into epidemic data, which was carried out by two Chinese universities, “indicates with 50% probability that the first Covid-19 infection in the United States may have occurred between August and October 2019, and the earliest possible case was on 26 April 2019, in Rhode Island”.

Global Times says that this infers the virus was in the US months before cases were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

This is not the first time that state media have pushed theories suggesting the virus originated in the West. It has been common for outlets to suggest that cases of Covid-19 pre-dated China’s - and the world's first - outbreak by suggesting cases were already in northern Italy, and in the US.

There has been a lot of disinformation surrounding the latter theory. In mid-2020, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian played an important role in spreading the “US origin” theory. He posted on Twitter multiple messages suggesting that the virus may have leaked from a US military base.

Ahead of the US intelligence report on the virus origins last month, Chinese state media pumped out reports suggesting the Covid-19 virus was made and leaked from the Fort Detrick US military base in Frederick, Maryland.

A rap song was even produced, suggesting the virus was hatched in a lab, and this was endorsed by multiple official media outlets and government officials.

The pace of vaccinations in Africa must rise by over seven times to around 150 million per month on average to meet the global goal of vaccinating 70% of every country’s population, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa has said.

"As it stands one in three people globally are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, but in Africa this drops to one in 25," Dr Benido Impouma of WHO Africa said at a news briefing.

Covax deliveries were still coming in to African countries - with four million doses arriving in the past week - but it was concerning that only a third of the doses pledged by the end of 2021 had been received, he added.

He was talking after a virtual summit aimed at boosting global vaccination rates against Covid, where US President Joe Biden pledged to donate 500 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine to developing nations from next year.

The worst ever performance figures have again been recorded by hospital A&E units in Wales, reflecting the pressure placed on emergency care in the NHS as a result of the pandemic.

Covid was continuing to have a "significant impact" and rising cases had compounded existing pressures, meaning some difficult decisions were having to be made, according to Darren Hughes, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation.

The figures also show the Welsh Ambulance Service recorded its second worst response times to the most critical calls since new targets were introduced in 2015.

They also show another record-breaking month for people on NHS waiting lists - those waiting more than nine months were at record levels.

The Welsh government said although those waiting the longest continued to be at a record high, a higher proportion were waiting less than 26 weeks and the median waiting time fell slightly.

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Sturgeon also defended her government's handling of the pandemic, insisting it had been flexible in its response during an "unprecedented set of circumstances".

Her comments were in response to criticism from the Scottish Conservative leader, who accused her government of "scrambling about putting on sticking plasters over each new crisis instead of planning to stop them in the first place".

"They're only reacting when disaster strikes," he added.

Image source, PA Media

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is being quizzed by opposition leaders and backbench MSPs at First Minister's Questions.

She has defended her government's response to the pandemic after criticism from Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.

He accused her of "hiding behind Covid" as an excuse for long-standing issues with the NHS.

Ross quoted Public Health Scotland figures saying that the number of patients waiting more than half a day to be seen at A&E departments is 10 times higher than it was two years ago.

He said the Scottish government had failed to properly resource the ambulance service, had reduced the number of hospital beds and did "not plug the gaps in the NHS workforce".

Sturgeon responded that since the Scottish government took office in 2007, the number of A&E consultants had increased by 242%.

But the first minister acknowledged that A&E departments were working under "intense pressure", considerably exacerbated by Covid.

Image source, Reuters

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said he will self-isolate for five days following his return from the United Nations' General Assembly in New York.

His health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, tested positive for the coronavirus and has been forced to stay in a New York hotel.

Some 50 people from the delegation that travelled with Mr Bolsonaro to the US will also stay at home until Saturday.

Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa, had recommended two weeks of quarantine for the president and his entourage.

Mr Bolsonaro says he didn't get vaccinated against the virus because he had Covid before and has developed antibodies.

His office has said he will be tested daily and will only remain in isolation if he tests positive.

Image source, PA Media

The Department of Health has recommended no change to the nine Covid-19 restrictions still legally enforceable in Northern Ireland.

The restrictions include social distancing and mask wearing in some indoor hospitality and retail settings.

Ministers are holding their first face-to-face meeting of the Stormont executive in almost a year.

Various sectors affected by the Covid-19 restrictions have been warned not to expect any "significant" changes.

It is understood that ministers will examine the Department of Health recommendation before making a final decision.

The advice came from chief medical officer Sir Michael McBride and chief scientific adviser Prof Ian Young.

Read more.

Analysis: Why is there a boom in centenarians?published at 12:43 British Summer Time 23 September 2021

12:43 BST 23 September 2021

Philippa Roxby
Health reporter, BBC News

Despite coronavirus, the number of people aged 100 years and over in the UK rose to its highest ever level in 2020, the Office for National Statistics says.

Nearly half of those 15,100 centenarians had their 100th birthday last year.

So why did so many get a letter from the Queen in 2020?

They would have been born in 1920, during a baby boom after the end of World War One.

In 1919-20, there were 45% more births than the year before and thanks to improvements in living standards and health over the last century, many of them have been lucky enough to live to very old ages.

But it's a different picture in people in their 90s - this population is still growing, but much more slowly, reflecting lower birth numbers after the post-WW1 peak.

The pandemic also had an impact, hitting older age groups harder than younger ones.

Women, on average, live longer than men - and there are around twice as many women than men in their 90s, and four times as many women aged 100 and over.

Men are catching up though.

Over time, less smoking and better working conditions have meant men living longer.

Even 20 years ago, the gap between female and male life expectancy was much greater.

There were eight times as many female centenarians to every male back then.