Image source, Reuters

Both Ukraine and the Czech Republic have set new records in their daily rise in infections, reports Reuters news agency.

Ukraine has reported 3,584 new coronavirus infections, the national security council said on Thursday. That brings the country to a total of 166,244 cases, with 3,400 deaths.

Meanwhile for the first time the Czech Republic counted more than 2,000 new cases in a 24-hour period - it reported 2,139 new infections on Wednesday, up from a previous record of 1,675.

Image source, Reuters

People up and down the UK have been unable to access coronavirus tests in recent days, as appointments were paused with the system struggling to cope.

Some were told the nearest test centre to them was hundreds of miles away - if they could access a test at all.

Yet five mega-labs trundle on, processing hundreds of thousands of samples of samples a day and the government says capacity is higher than ever.

Demand for tests has soared, but what isn't clear is by how much. Pressure has been put on the system due to people returning from holiday and children going back to school - as well as the change in season bringing about other viruses like colds.

For many, the message that it's essential to get a test if you have symptoms will have sunk in.

But concerns have been raised about the "worried well" - people applying for tests unnecessarily even if they don't have the relevant symptoms.

Back in August it was clear those five mega-labs were close to capacity - in fact, all the testing capacity was used up on 23 August. Two more are due to open. But will that be enough?

Read our full explainer here.

Image source, Reuters

Finding an effective vaccine is a top priority globally, but in the US where the presidential election is just weeks away, the topic is becoming heated.

On Wednesday President Trump said Americans would be able to access a vaccine as early as next month, contradicting claims by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We think we can start sometime in October," the president said. Trump also called Dr Robert Redfield "confused" because he predicted a longer time frame for a vaccine.

Health care workers and others at high risk would get the vaccine first, perhaps in January or even late this year, Dr Redfield told a congressional hearing, but it was unlikely to be available more broadly before mid-2021.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

China’s Ministry of Education has arranged 90 degree programmes across the country for students who have had their overseas study plans disrupted by the global pandemic.

The Global Times newspaper notes that many Chinese students have had to change or even cancel their overseas degrees this year, because of border, flight or visa restrictions that prevent them from entering countries where cases are on the rise.

However, many students have also changed their plans, factoring in concerns about rising xenophobic attitudes towards the Chinese in countries like the US.

Safety from Covid-19 has also been a factor in students deciding to stay home, as it has now been 31 days since China reported any domestic cases of the virus within the country.

The ministry says that the new programmes have been launched with global partners to provide students with the same opportunities to study at home that they would have received overseas.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese normally study overseas every year.They make up the largest proportion of overseas students across the world., external

An estimated 1.42m Chinese students were already overseas as of April this year, external. However, the pandemic led to huge numbers of those being stranded overseas since January.Some are still struggling to return, external.

Image source, Getty Images

Local restrictions are expected to be announced in the north-east of England, where coronavirus cases have been rising.

Nearly two million people in Newcastle, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Northumberland and County Durham are set to be affected by the move.

The measures could include pubs closing at 22:00, people being told not to mix with other households, and public transport only being used for essential travel.

The full announcement is expected to come later on Thursday - with the measures starting at midnight, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told ITV’s Peston programme.

Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes said it was hoped the temporary measures would prevent a "full lockdown".

New Zealand is in its deepest recession in decades, following strict measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic which were widely praised.

The country's GDP shrank by 12.2% between April and June as the lockdown and border closures hit.

It is New Zealand's first recession since the global financial crisis and its worst since 1987, when the current system of measurement began.

But the government hopes its pandemic response will lead to a quick recovery.

The nation of nearly five million was briefly declared virus free, and although it still has a handful of cases, it has only had 25 deaths.

Image source, Getty Images

Hello and thank you for joining our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. The main headlines on Thursday are:

• President Donald Trump has said there will be an effective vaccine available for mass distribution in the US in a matter of weeks - contradicting one of his top health officials. The president's rival in November's election, Joe Biden, says that Trump's promises can't be trusted
• New restrictions are expected to be introduced in England's north-east region where coronavirus cases have been sharply increasing
• South Africa's president has said he will start to lift the majority of the country's restrictions, which were some of the strictest in the world, claiming that they have "withstood the coronavirus storm"
• New Zealand is seeing a recession for the first time in eleven years as its strict lockdown measures hit the economy. It shrank 12% in the last quarter
• And India has reported another record jump in cases, its health ministry reported. It added another 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours to its tally of 5.1 million infections, the second-highest in the world
• Overall, there have been nearly 30m confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the world, as well as more than 939,000 deaths