Image source, Getty Images

We'll soon be pausing our coronavirus live page for the day and will be back tomorrow. Thanks for joining us.

Here is a recap of the main developments from the UK:

• Passengers from mainland Portugal to England will have to quarantine from 04:00 BST on Saturday, just weeks after the country was put on the safe travel list. Wales and Scotland had already imposed the mandatory two weeks of self-isolation earlier this month
• Scotland has followed England in limiting the number of people who can meet together to six people. Restrictions on visiting other households are also to be reintroduced in parts of Northern Ireland
• Meanwhile, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said new coronavirus rules in England banning social gatherings of more than six people will not be kept in place "any longer than we have to" . "This sacrifice is vital to control the virus for the long term," he told MPs

Today's live page writers were Yaroslav Lukov, George Bowden, Sophie Williams and Alex Therrien. The editors were Helier Cheung and Rob Corp.

Image source, Reuters

Global deaths linked to the virus have now surpassed 900,000, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. Here are some of the other big stories from today:

• US President Trump has defended his decision to downplay the risks of Covid-19, saying his answers to a journalist were proper. According to a book by journalist Bob Woodward, Mr Trump claimed he “played down” the risk to avoid panic
• Portugal has announced restrictions on public gatherings and the sale of alcohol on the same day that the UK announced it was taking Portugal’s mainland off its air corridor list
• Israel is considering a nationwide lockdown as the country experiences a new daily record number of cases - 3,904
• Indonesia’s capital Jakarta is bringing back restrictions, with the governor warning of an “emergency” situation as hospitals fill up. About 77% of isolation beds in Jakarta are currently occupied and the city will run out of beds by 17 September, Governor Anies Baswedan said
• France reported 9,843 new cases on Thursday. Deaths increased by 19, according to French health authorities

Image source, Reuters

The Toronto International Film Festival is back for its 45th year but this year's event is set to be rather different due to Covid restrictions.

Events will take place around the city and also online. The line-up has been drastically reduced compared with previous years as around 50 films are taking part.

Screenings in theatres will be capped at 50 and some showings will take place at drive-in cinemas and outdoor "cinema pods" in the city’s parks.

On Thursday, the festival reversed a decision to allow people to take their masks off once in their seats.

The event will open with the Spike Lee film David Byrne’s American Utopia.

Image source, Tracy Bonner

A mother who was unable to book her son a Covid-19 test online got one after she "just turned up at the test site".

Tracy Bonner from Clifton, Nottinghamshire, was concerned after her 14-year-old son Ryan developed a cough and a high temperature.

When she tried to book a test, she was told the nearest site was two hours away in Oldham.

The 47-year-old drove to a Nottingham centre, where staff saw her son, as "no-one else was getting tested".

It comes after a shortage of UK laboratory capacity has caused nationwide issues with getting appointments, as some people have had to travel hundreds of miles for tests.

A lack of processing capacity - rather than issues at testing centres - has meant fewer appointments have been available for those exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms.

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Health directors at Weston General Hospital in North Somerset have apologised after an internal investigation revealed hospital-acquired coronavirus infections may have contributed to the deaths of 18 patients.

An outbreak hit the hospital in May, forcing it to close to new admissions.

A report by the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust identified a total of 31 patients who died having contracted coronavirus while they were an inpatient.

A single cause for the outbreak has not yet been identified.

"We apologise unreservedly," said the trust's medical director, Dr William Oldfield.

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Image source, Reuters

Singapore Airlines has announced it is laying off more than 4,300 members of staff as the travel industry continues to be hit hard by the pandemic.

The figure accounts for about 20% of its workforce.

About 1,900 roles at the company have already been cut via redundancies and hiring freezes. Roughly 2,400 more jobs are expected to go.

The cuts will cover Singapore Airlines, its regional carrier SilkAir and budget airline Scoot.

“Given the expectation that the road to recovery will be long and fraught with uncertainty, it has come to the point where we have to make the painfully difficult decision to implement involuntary staff reduction measures,” Singapore Airlines’ chief executive Goh Choon Phong said.

The airline is operating at 8% of its pre-pandemic capacity and reported a loss of more than $800 million (£621 million) in the first quarter.

It expects to be operating at 50% capacity by next March.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Given the rise in coronavirus cases there has been recently, there is now a lot of focus on what is happening to hospital admissions.

On the face of it there are some signs hospital cases may be starting to go up. There are currently 837 patients in hospital with Covid-19 – a week ago it was under 750.

These numbers vary from day to day though so it is too early to say whether it is the start of the expected upward trend.

There is also another complication. Scotland counts someone as a hospital case if they have ever tested positive for the virus – and the country accounts for a third of all cases despite only having 8% of the UK’s population.

If you just count England, which relies on a positive test 14 days before admission or after admission, the cases are around 100 higher than they were last week.

The figures though remain a long way from the peak in the spring when 20,000 patients were in hospital with the virus.

Image source, UK Parliament

Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May and ex-Transport Secretary Chris Grayling have joined voices to call on the current government to change its policy on aviation during the pandemic.

Mrs May told the House of Commons the aviation sector was important for jobs and Britain's standing around the world - and that it was a "shame" Boris Johnson's government had not moved quickly enough to encourage passengers.

She said that changes to the country's travel corridor policy had led to "uncertainty" and that stopping people flying into the UK would not change the fact "the virus is here, we will continue to have cases of Covid".

Airport testing would "mitigate the risk" of people coming into the UK with coronavirus and the government should support trials at airports.

Mr Grayling told MPs he was speaking out because he felt passionately that the issue must be addressed "urgently".

Testing - initially on a trial basis - "has to be the way forward, this is vitally important for the industry" and that testing would allow the reopening of transatlantic routes to North America.

"We have got to do this, and we have got to do it now," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

UK nightclubs have been "left to rot in a corner" during the coronavirus pandemic, Sister Bliss from dance act Faithless has said.

The musician and DJ told BBC Radio 6 Music that club culture should be better protected.

"There's a lack of leadership at the top which means certain industries have been given support and then others have been completely ignored," she said.

"The electronic music scene and clubbing is definitely an incredible part of our cultural and economic force, and it travels all over the world globally.

"We really, I think, have been left to rot in a corner, so it's good to see that venues and artists are trying to galvanise it - with the Let the Music Play movement - trying to bring the plight of venues and freelancers, like myself, to the fore."

The government says clubs must stay shut "in line with current scientific advice to control the virus".

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Restrictions on visiting other households are to be reintroduced in parts of Northern Ireland after a rise in cases of coronavirus.

The new rules affect people in Ballymena, those who live in the Belfast council area and addresses with postcodes BT43, BT28 and BT29.

Those postcodes take in parts of Glenavy, Lisburn and Crumlin.

There will be a limited number of exemptions.

More than A$200,000 (£113,000) has been raised for an Australian family who were told they would have to pay for a hotel to isolate in, in order to visit their terminally ill father.

Mark Keans has cancer and lives in Queensland. His children, all under the age of 13, reside in New South Wales. Due to state quarantine rules, they had to apply for permission to travel to visit him.

After numerous requests were denied, the Queensland government eventually granted them permission but said they would have to pay $16,000 to stay in a quarantine hotel, according to Channel 7 News, external.

After his story was covered in Australian media, thousands of dollars were raised to help the family.

Once they have completed the 14-day isolation period, they will have to be driven in an official vehicle while wearing PPE to visit their father.

Image source, Reuters

Amazon.com has denied it inflated prices for hand sanitiser, disposable gloves and essentials months after the start of the pandemic.

It comes after a report by consumer watchdog Public Citizen, external, released on Thursday, analysed dozens of items on the site and data from price tracking sites.

The group said that prices increased as much as 1,000% compared to pre-pandemic levels or prices at other large retailers. The items with increases included items advertised as being “sold by Amazon” - despite the company blaming third-party sellers for the rise, the report added.

In one example, the price of a pack of 50 disposable face masks increased by 1,000%.

In a statement to Bloomberg, external, Amazon said: “There is no place for price gouging on Amazon and that includes products offered directly by Amazon. Our systems are designed to offer customers the best available online price and if we see an error, we work quickly to fix it.”

Image source, Reuters

Portugal has announced new restrictions to control the spread of the virus on the same day that the UK removed the country's mainland its safe travel corridor..

The Portuguese authorities have now restricted social gatherings to 10 people, down from 20 previously. The sale of alcohol will be banned from 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) along with drinking in public spaces.

Portugal recorded 646 infections on Wednesday, the highest since 20 April.

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps explained that "enhanced data" meant the government now had "the capability to assess islands separate to their mainland countries".

This means that those arriving in England from the Azores or Madeira from 04:00 on Saturday will not have to self-isolate.

Mr Shapps added that Sweden had been added to the travel corridors list, meaning people arriving in England from there will no longer have to self-isolate.

You can see the travel corridors list here, external

Portugal, excluding the autonomous islands of the Azores and Madeira, is among a number of countries to be removed from England's safe travel list, the transport secretary has announced.

The new rules mean people arriving in England from mainland Portugal after 04:00 on Saturday 12 September will need to self-isolate for 14 days.

Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion Island have also been removed from the list.

Image source, Getty Images

Good afternoon. Here's a round-up of the main coronavirus developments in the UK so far today:

• The new coronavirus rules in England banning social gatherings of more than six people will not be kept in place "any longer than we have to", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said. The law comes into force on Monday, with Mr Hancock saying it was "vital" to control the virus for the "long term"
• The number of people testing positive for coronavirus in the UK has exceeded 2,000 for the fifth day in a row. A further 2,919 people tested positive - up from 2,659 on Wednesday
• The number of people allowed to meet up in Scotland has been cut to six - a day after the same restriction was announced for England. It came as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a "tightening and extension" of lockdown rules in Scotland
• The disruption to hospitals in England during the pandemic has meant the number of patients facing long waits for routine operations has soared. More than two million people on the waiting list - half the total - have been waiting more than 18 weeks, the highest since records began in 2007
• Universities should switch to full online learning only as a last resort in the event of a local coronavirus outbreak, new guidance says. Students should also limit socialising, staying within separate "households", and should be taught in managed groups, it says

UN Secretary General António Guterres has urged countries to find $15bn (£12bn) over the next three months for the World Health Organization's ACT-Accelerator programme to fund Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

"Either we stand together or we will be doomed," Mr Guterres warned, describing the current pandemic as the "number one global security threat".

"We need a quantum leap in funding to increase the chances of a global solution to get the world moving, working and prospering again."

Mr Guterres said that the near $3bn secured so far had been critical for the initial phase since the programme's launch four months ago.

But he stressed that $35bn more was needed, beginning with $15bn in the next three months.

Earlier this year, the US halted funding to the WHO, accusing the body of mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic. Our Reality Check team fact checked Donald Trump's claims here.

A further 2,919 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK - up from 2,659 on Wednesday and the fifth day in a row where cases have exceeded 2,000.

It brings the total number of cases to 358,138.

A further 14 deaths were recorded, within 28 days of a positive test, bringing the total number by this criteria to 41,608.

At least 70 people in the US state of Minnesota have contracted coronavirus at a wedding.

The wedding on 22 August in the city of Ghent had about 270 guests, exceeding the allowed capacity.

Attendees and their close contacts have been asked to isolate.

State infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann told NBC News, external on Wednesday the number had grown from 58 last week to 70.

At a news conference last week, Ms Ehresmann claimed people were avoiding getting tested. She said healthcare workers were among those infected.

Minnesota has recorded more than 81,868 cases and 1,869 deaths since the pandemic began.

Image source, Reuters

Drugs giant AstraZeneca says a Covid-19 vaccine could still be available by "the end of this year, early next year" - despite the fact that clinical trials have been temporarily halted after a participant had a suspected adverse reaction in the UK.

"We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early next year," the UK-based company's chief executive Pascal Soriot said.

He added that this depended on how fast regulators would move.

Earlier this week, AstraZeneca announced a "routine" pause in the trials because of "an unexplained illness".

The outcome of vaccine trials is being closely watched around the world.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine is seen as a strong contender among dozens being developed globally.

Read more: When will we have a vaccine?