Thanks for following our live coverage today. We'll be back tomorrow with more updates throughout the day.

Today's top headlines include:

• Scientists say they are keeping a close eye on a new mutation of the Delta variant spotted in the UK. Tests are being carried out to learn more about it, but experts don't think it is likely to take off in a big way or escape current vaccines.
• From half-term, children aged 12 to 15 in England will be able to book their jabs at national vaccination centres, rather than being vaccinated in schools
• Northern Ireland has decided to keep its rules on face masks throughout autumn and winter, while Scotland is keeping masks compulsory in secondary schools
• The UK has announced a further 223 people have died with Covid, more than four times the previous day's figure. A further 43,738 new cases have been recorded. We've got a piece looking at why case numbers are so high in the UK.

Today's coverage was written by Joseph Lee, Alex Therrien, Jack Hunter, Katie Wright, Joshua Cheetham and Francesca Gillett. It was edited by Hamish Mackay.

Downing Street says the government is "not complacent" about rising coronavirus cases but the levels of hospital admissions and deaths are far below those earlier in the pandemic.

Earlier, we reported that No 10 said it would only roll out its plan B for winter if pressure on the NHS was becoming unsustainable.

"We are not at that point," says the prime minister's official spokesman.

"Because of the vaccination programme, the levels we are seeing in both patients admitted to hospital and deaths are far lower than we saw in previous peaks."

He says the hospital admissions and deaths are "an order of magnitude lower" than previous waves of infection.

"That is not to say we are complacent, we are monitoring this very carefully and we recognise that the NHS will be facing challenges as we come into the winter months, which normally are a busier period for our health service."

Image source, Getty Images

The Premier League has released new figures on the vaccination levels of footballers at its clubs: 81% have had one jab while 68% are now fully vaccinated.

The league says it continues to work with clubs to encourage vaccine uptake among players and staff, but it won't discuss details of club vaccination rates or whether individual players have had the jab.

It comes after the league considered last month whether to reward players and squads with high vaccine take-up, amid concerns at the time that fewer than half of players at most clubs were vaccinated.

Read more about footballers and vaccination.

Image source, Getty Images

Lithuania has announced that all adults aged over 18 will be eligible to receive a third booster vaccine, 180 days after their second dose.

In a statement, the country's health ministry says, external it has made the extra vaccine doses available to help boost people's immunity, following advice from experts in Lithuania and recommendations from the European Medicines Agency.

Around 71% of Lithuanian adults have been fully vaccinated so far, close to the European Union average of 74%, according to EU figures.

But the eastern European country has been grappling with one of the continent's highest infection levels - and one of the worst mortality rates, behind only Bulgaria and Romania.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK government is planning to launch an inquiry into the response to the Covid pandemic early next year.

The scope of the inquiry will be announced at a later date - but many families in Wales who have lost loved-ones say they want an inquiry specific to the Welsh government, since all four UK nations had the power to make Covid rules.

Scotland already plans to start its own inquiry later this year.

Speaking today, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford says he spoke to PM Boris Johnson and was given a "guarantee" there will be "a proper Welsh dimension" to the UK one.

Read more here.

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

MPs have voted to extend the government's emergency coronavirus powers for another six months.

It follows a debate on whether to renew the Coronavirus Act 2020,, external which came into force in March last year and gave the government wide-ranging powers. But it's worth noting that the act wasn't used for lockdowns; that came under the Public Health Act.

Although some MPs argued that the Coronavirus Act should be dropped, ministers say the powers are "still necessary and proportionate" and that it's "wise" to have flexibility over the winter.

Some provisions in the act - about half of all provisions - will be expired, Health Secretary Sajid Javid says.

Police have had to escort cabinet minister Michael Gove away from a crowd of anti-lockdown protesters who attempted to surround him.

The communities secretary was approached by people with video cameras as he walked in central London, with footage on social media showing them questioning him about what they falsely called "illegal lockdowns".

Police officers quickly encircled him and pushed back as a larger crowd gathered, chanting and shouting at the minister.

It comes just days after the home secretary promised to review MPs' security in the wake of the fatal stabbing of Sir David Amess.

The Metropolitan Police says protesters were demonstrating in a number of locations in central London and attempted to surround the MP on Horseferry Road, but "officers were immediately on scene where they safely escorted him to a nearby building".

The Met says no arrests have been made, but it will review officers' body-worn cameras.

Downing Street says it expects the police to take the incident seriously.

"It is unacceptable for those who disagree to target individuals. Their behaviour is abhorrent," the prime minister's spokesman says.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

More from Moscow now. The city says it's giving away 10 apartments to locals who get vaccinated, in a bid to boost uptake of the jab.

Residents who get the vaccine can now enter their names in a draw for one of the 10 small flats in the Russian capital.

For each of the next five weeks, two flats will be given away to recently vaccinated Muscovites, with the winners announced live on local TV.

The giveaway is one of a number of schemes Moscow and other regional authorities in Russia are undertaking to raise the country's low vaccination rate.

Moscow has already held prize draws for vaccinated locals, and is currently offering senior citizens care packages - or cash - if they get the jab.

Vaccine hesitancy has proven a major challenge for Russia's vaccination campaign. According to government data, by the start of October, just over 42 million people had been vaccinated - around a third of the country's population.

The UK government has announced a further, external 223 people have died with Covid in the UK - up from 45 yesterday.

Another 43,738 cases have also been reported, slightly down on yesterday's figure.

However, cases have been rising throughout this month - with around 30,000 daily cases near the start of October.

Earlier, No 10 said it was keeping a "very close eye" on the situation.

Image source, Getty Images

The pandemic is continuing to put the NHS under pressure across the UK - with health services in all four nations receiving support from the armed forces in recent months.

In Scotland, new figures have been published showing that the number of patients spending more than half a day waiting in A&E departments has reached its highest ever level.

More than 600 people in Scotland waited more than 12 hours in the week up to 10 October, the data shows.

The Scottish government says the pandemic is "inevitably" affecting A&E waiting times.

More here.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

The move to allow 12 to 15-year-olds to be vaccinated at national hubs rather than just at schools marks a change in strategy from NHS England, after criticism of the slow pace of the vaccine rollout in teenagers.

Just 15% of 12-15 year olds in England have been given one Pfizer jab, compared with 47% in Scotland.

Until now the idea has been to offer the vaccine to English pupils in school itself – that has proved difficult in some places, not least because infection rates in that age group have been surging since the start of term.

Now those same children will also be allowed to go online and book an appointment in the same way as adults.

Parents are being asked to wait for letters to arrive around the end of the week, asking for consent before signing up online.

The idea is to roll out the vaccine to significant numbers next week – half-term for many schools across England.

Image source, ParliamentLive.TV

MPs are currently debating whether to renew the Coronavirus Act 2020, which gives the government emergency powers.

The act came in to force in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, with ministers pledging to use the measures "when strictly necessary".

The law gives the government wide-ranging powers - from shutting down pubs to detaining at-risk individuals to contain the spread of the virus.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid says the government does not want to keep the measures in place "any longer than necessary" - but that the winter ahead is a "cause of caution".

The legislation will be reviewed again in the spring, he says.

Some MPs are calling for the powers to lapse.

Image source, EPA

Unvaccinated elderly people in Moscow have been ordered to stay at home for four months, amid a surge in cases and deaths in Russia.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says all over-60s must stay at home from 25 October until 25 February, unless they are vaccinated or have had Covid in the past six months.

Under new measures announced by Sobyanin, businesses must also transfer at least 30% of their staff to working from home.

They are the first Covid restrictions ordered by the Russian capital since the summer.

The measures come as officially reported daily new cases and deaths caused by Covid in Russia continue to grow. Earlier today, authorities reported 1,015 daily Covid deaths - another record high.

Image source, PA Media

The number of daily coronavirus cases in the UK reached nearly 50,000 yesterday, which would have been the first time that's happened since mid-July.

No 10 says it is keeping a "very close eye" on the situation - and urged people to get their booster jabs.

"We have seen case rates rising, we've started to see some indications that hospitalisations and death rates are increasing also," the PM's spokesman says.

"The most important message for the public to understand is the vital importance of the booster programme and indeed for those children who are eligible to come forward and get our jab.

"We're seeing some groups come forward slightly more slowly than they did perhaps when they were getting their first or second vaccination and it's important that the public understand that getting your booster jab is just as important as getting your first and second dose."

And asked about whether ministers had discussed rolling out the government's "plan B" of extra rules for winter - which you can find more about here - he says: "It remains the case we would only look to use that if the pressure on the NHS was looking to become unsustainable."

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Reuters

Since the weekend, spates of Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in multiple Chinese provinces and provincial-level regions.

Mainstream media are reporting that at least nine cases have been confirmed in Shaanxi province, seven in Inner Mongolia, and six in Gansu – all in China’s north.

Individual cases have also been detected in Beijing, Guizhou, Ningxia and Hunan province. The Beijing case was a close contact of an earlier patient; the remaining three cases all had a history of travel in Gansu.

Although cases remain in the single digits in each provincial-level region, there are fears that China could be on the cusp of a more widespread winter outbreak.

The Global Times newspaper says that many patients are elderly, and although vaccinated, they had travelled as part of a cross-provincial tour group to multiple tourist sites.

This outbreak comes off the back of a major travel period in China. More than half a million journeys were made during the first week of October for the annual national holiday, Golden Week.

Today, parts of Inner Mongolia and Gansu have gone into lockdown. Tourist sites have closed in multiple regions, and some travel restrictions are being introduced into affected regions.

Image source, Pacemaker

Wearing face coverings in crowded indoor spaces will remain a legal requirement in Northern Ireland throughout autumn and winter, the executive says.

It is part of the executive's winter Covid contingency plans, external, outlined today.

First Minister Paul Givan says there will also be a "focus on flexible and hybrid working" in workplaces.

He also set out a range of options if Covid cases rise sharply or hospital pressures become "unsustainable".

Read more about the plans here.

Image source, Getty Images

Tennis players who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 are unlikely to be allowed to compete in the Australian Open, says the leader of the state in which the tournament is held.

The Grand Slam event is due to start on 17 January in Melbourne, Victoria. The state has introduced a vaccination mandate for professional athletes.

"I don't think an unvaccinated tennis player is going to get a visa to come into this country," said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

"If they did get a visa they'd probably have to quarantine for a couple of weeks. If I'm wrong I'm sure the federal government will let you know."

Yesterday, reigning men's champion and world number one Novak Djokovic declined to reveal his vaccination status again and said he was unsure if he would defend his title in Melbourne, where he has won nine times.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

We've heard a lot in recent days about how the pandemic is continuing to affect the NHS - with fresh warnings as the number of cases in the UK continues to rise.

And Health Secretary Sajid Javid says there are now shortages of NHS staff to answer 111 and 999 calls.

He's been answering questions from MPs who sit on the health and social care committee, and is asked by Conservative Jeremy Hunt about warnings about a shortage of call handlers.

"There are shortages across the NHS," says Mr Javid. "(Mr Hunt) has mentioned 999 callers, there's a huge pressure at the moment on 111 calls as well and emergency care generally, including ambulance services.

"There's a significant amount of support that has been put in, especially over the last few months, especially additional funding."

Mr Javid adds that the government will set out a plan in the next couple of weeks to deal with the pressures on the health service.

Image source, EPA

Children as young as six have started receiving Covid-19 vaccines in Ecuador.

The South American country is giving the vaccine to two million children aged six to 11. Ecuador's Vice President Alfredo Borrero kicked off the rollout at a school in the capital Quito.

Vaccinating the children will help the return to full in-person teaching in schools in Ecuador, officials say.

Read more: Which countries are vaccinating children and why?

According to analysis based on the government's coronavirus data, Ipswich has the highest rate of Covid infections in the UK.

The figures cover the week to 14 October, and are based on the number of people who have tested positive for the virus.

Of the 377 local areas in the UK, 87% saw a week-on-week rise in rates and 13% have seen a fall.

The highest rate in the UK was found in Ipswich in Suffolk, with 854.5 cases per 100,000 people.

It was followed by: Wellingborough in Northamptonshire; Torfaen in south Wales; and Somerset West and Taunton in south-west England.