Image source, EPA

Israel's government has agreed to lift some of the restrictions imposed during a month-long second nationwide lockdown, with the daily number of new infections continuing to decline.

From Sunday, Israelis will be allowed to travel more than 1km (0.6 mile) from their homes for non-essential purposes; children will return to nurseries and pre-schools; restaurants will be permitted to serve takeaway food.

People will also be able to visit beaches and national parks, and pray at the Western Wall, the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The lockdown began on 18 September, after Israel experienced infection and mortality rates that were among the highest in the world relative to population size.

The daily number of new confirmed cases has gradually fallen from a high of almost 9,000 at the end of September to below 2,000. The rate of positive tests - 4.5% - is also the lowest recorded since mid-July, while the reproduction number, or R value, currently stands at 0.62.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein nevertheless warned that there was "still a long road ahead", noting that the infection rate might begin to rise as restrictions were eased.

Liverpool's mayor has called for "immediate clarification" on why gyms in Lancashire are allowed to stay open when they are closed in the Liverpool City Region.

Joe Anderson tweeted: "Inconsistent mess, we now have Tier 3 A and Tier 3 B.

"Are gym users in Lancashire more safer than those in Liverpool region?"

Wirral Council leader Jan Williamson also tweeted: "As Liverpool City Region leaders we demanding the evidence from government immediately as to why our gyms have had to shut and Lancashire can keep theirs open.

"We need fairness and consistency, what we have is a shambles."

How does Tier 3 work?

Areas on very high alert - Tier 3 - face the strictest curbs, with bans on household mixing indoors, in private gardens and most outdoor venues.

People from different households can still meet in certain outdoor public spaces, such as parks, beaches, the countryside, forests, public gardens, allotments, outdoor sports facilities and playgrounds.

Pubs and bars will be closed unless they are serving substantial meals and there is also guidance against travelling in and out of the area.

Further restrictions may be agreed for particular regions in the top tier and in the Liverpool City Region gyms, leisure centres, betting shops and casinos have also been forced to close.

Natalie Higgins
BBC News, Brussels

Image source, EPA

Finland's prime minister has become the second leader to leave a face-to-face EU summit taking place in Brussels, after a recent contact of hers tested positive for Covid-19.

Sanna Marin will immediately return to Finland, take a test and enter voluntary quarantine. She earlier came into contact with MP Tom Packalenin - who has since been confirmed to be infected - in the Finnish parliament.

The Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will represent Marin for the rest of the summit.

Yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen left the summit after a member of her team tested positive, entering voluntary self-isolation "as a precaution".

The UK government has confirmed that Lancashire is to move into the top tier of restrictions from 00.01 on Saturday 17 October.

It confirmed the following restrictions were coming into place:

• People must not socialise with anybody they do not live with, or have formed a support bubble with, in any indoor setting or in any private garden or at most outdoor hospitality venues and ticketed events
• People must not socialise in a group of more than six in an outdoor public space such as a park or beach, the countryside, a public garden or a sports venue
• All pubs and bars must close, unless they are serving substantial meals
• People should try to avoid travelling outside the very-high alert level or entering a very-high alert level area, other than for work, education or for caring responsibilities or to travel through as part of a longer journey
• Residents should avoid staying overnight in another part of the UK, and others should avoid staying overnight in the very high alert area

In addition, following discussions with local leaders, it was agreed that from Monday 19 October at 00.01:

• The adult gaming industry, casinos, bingo halls, bookmakers, betting shops, and soft play areas must close
• Car boot sales would not be permitted

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “An unrelenting rise in cases in Lancashire means we must act now, and we have worked intensively with local leaders to agree on additional restrictions.

“I know how heavy these additional challenges will weigh on every day life for the people of Lancashire – but they are critical in bringing this virus under control.

“Without them, we risk the health of your loved ones, your most vulnerable and your local NHS services. Now is the time to play your part, and we will make sure you are supported.”

As we reported earlier, a deal has been agreed for Lancashire to enter England's highest tier of coronavirus restrictions.

We're still waiting for an official announcement on the deal.

Geoff Driver, Conservative leader of Lancashire County Council, told the BBC that pubs and bars would close in the area, in line with Tier 3 restrictions.

But he said gyms and leisure centres would remain open for now, after the council convinced the government it had sufficient measures in place to monitor their performance.

He revealed the council had received £42m in total - £12m for being an area going into Tier and a further £30m the council had negotiated.

Gyms and coronavirus: What are the facts?

Mike Stevens
BBC Radio Lancashire political reporter

The deal agreed with Lancashire over going into Tier 3 restrictions involves a support package worth £42m.

This is more than local leaders had hoped for, having been promised £12m.

They’ve also been promised more support for local Test and Trace and a specific ministerial team to deal with the outbreak in Lancashire.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to the leaders but didn’t take questions.

He thanked them for their hard work, recognised the difficulty in coming to an agreement and emphasised how difficult the situation was in Lancashire.

However, some council leaders are not happy and wanted a bigger package of financial support.

Image source, Getty Images

About 20 million people in France are bracing for the start of night curfews from midnight Friday (22:00GMT).

The entire Paris region will have night curfews – from 21:00 to 06:00 - for at least a month, as will eight other cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Toulouse.

So what are the dos and don’ts?

Restaurants, bars, cafes and cinemas must shut at 21:00 and diners remain restricted to six maximum per table, French media report. Food outlets can still provide night-time deliveries.

Jogging and dog-walking will still be allowed during the curfew but, as during the two-month lockdown, a signed permit will be required, which can be downloaded onto a phone.

France is deploying 12,000 police officers specifically to enforce the curfew. The fine for a violation will be €135 (£122) and a repeat offender could face six months in prison and a €3,750 fine.

The few exemptions include medical emergencies, essential home care visits and travel by train or plane at night. Shift workers with late hours may also break the curfew.

Mayors in the north of England have issued a joint statement on the financial package available to people affected by regional coronavirus restrictions - as a stand-off with the UK government continues over England's three-tier system.

The statement from Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Jamie Driscoll, Mayor of North Tyne, and Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, says: "The government is claiming that the [north of England] is divided and only interested in getting what we can for our own region.

"That is simply not the case.

"We are all united in fighting for an 80% furlough scheme for all people affected by regional lockdowns, wherever they are in the country.

"Paying two-thirds of salaries will not be enough to protect the jobs of thousands - it should at least match the 80% that was available under furlough, with the minimum wage as the minimum support.

"The Universal Credit top-up is not the answer. It doesn't help everybody and takes weeks to come through. It will not prevent severe hardship for thousands of low-paid workers before Christmas.

"But we won't forget the self-employed and freelancers and other business who will be affected by these lockdowns, they also need support and we stand firm for those too.

"This is a fight for what is right."

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

In Poland, there have been 132 Covid-19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, the health ministry has tweeted - the highest daily number there since the start of the pandemic.

There were 7,705 new Covid-19 infections over the same period, the second highest Poland has reported and down from Thursday’s record of 8,099.

From Saturday, the highest level of restrictions will be introduced in almost half of Poland, including Warsaw and most major cities.

In those areas, distance learning will be reintroduced for secondary schools and universities. Wedding and family parties will be banned and public gatherings limited to 10 people. Restaurants and bars will be limited to 50% capacity and they must close at 21:00 (19:00 GMT), after which a takeaway service will be available.

Swimming pools and gyms will close throughout the country and spectators will no longer be permitted in sports grounds, which were previously allowed to be one quarter full. Face masks are already mandatory for everyone in public spaces.

Hospital admissions are rising rapidly and Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Thursday the health system was "testing its limits". Some hospitals are already reporting shortages of beds and ventilators, and trained staff needed to operate them.

Poland has reported a total of 157,608 cases and 3,440 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Police have broken up a wedding reception in the UK where more than 100 guests congregated in breach of coronavirus restrictions.

The event at the Tudor Rose in Southall, west London, on Tuesday evening was described as a "flagrant and arrogant violation of the law".

The venue's owner has been reported and could face a fine of up to £10,000.

Under current regional guidance, the number of guests allowed at weddings is limited to 15 people.

Body-worn camera footage of the reception, released by the Metropolitan Police, showed guests being led from the venue.

Image source, BMJ

A woman who was being tested for Covid-19 in a UK hospital ended up having the swab snap off into one of her lungs, a report said.

The patient, in her 50s, had a tracheostomy - a procedure where an opening in the neck is made - at a hospital in Leicester.

When a nurse tried to swab the woman for Covid-19 through her neck tube, the swab snapped off into her right lung.

The trust said additional safety measures were now in place.

The patient was being treated by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust after a neurosurgical operation, a British Medical Journal (BMJ) report , externalsaid, and was due to be discharged to a nursing home.

The test swab is designed to snap to fit into its test tube.

• Read more here

An official announcement on the new measures in Lancashire is expected shortly - at 11:00 BST.

• Read more here.

A deal has been agreed for Lancashire to enter England's highest tier of coronavirus restrictions.

Under Tier 3 - the "very high" alert level - measures include pub closures and a ban on household mixing indoors, in private gardens and in most outdoor venues.

Currently the Liverpool City Region is the only area under Tier 3 measures.

• What are the rules in Tier 3?

Image source, AFP

In Switzerland, a yodel concert attended by 600 people is believed to have made one canton a European virus hotspot.

According to the authorities, people at the event, which took place at the end of September in the rural canton of Schwyz, were asked to keep their distances, but were not required to wear masks.

"We found out nine days after the performance that several people from the group were infected," event organiser Beat Hegner told Swiss television.

With more than 1,230 coronavirus cases, the canton is now one of the continent's hotspots.

"The explosion in the number of cases in Schwyz is one of the worst in all of Europe," local hospital chief Reto Nueesch is quoted as saying in local media.

On Wednesday, some 94 people tested positive, twice as many as the day before, and 114 on Thursday.

Image source, AFP

Partial lockdowns are continuing to spread across Europe as governments battle to curb virus infections.

• The Netherlands has closed bars and restaurants as cases there surge. Hospitals in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague are under pressure from new Covid patients. Hospitals in western Germany have readied spare beds to take Dutch patients if necessary, as happened early on in the crisis
• New infections are also rising rapidly in Germany: the latest official daily figure is 7,334 cases, up from 6,638 on Thursday. Germany has declared many neighbouring countries and regions to be "high risk", including the whole of France and the Netherlands, and parts of Italy and Switzerland. Germans returning from there will have to quarantine
• Ireland now has a four-week national restriction on household visits, except for attending to medical and care needs. Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said Covid-19 in Ireland was "not in control" – that is, the current track-and-trace system could not keep up with it
• Austria has imposed a quarantine on Kuchl, a town of 6,600 inhabitants in the Salzburg region, because of a Covid cluster there. It is the first such measure in Austria for months
• France faces one last evening before a night curfew takes effect in Paris and eight other cities. The number of new cases in 24 hours reached 30,621 on Thursday – a new record.

Image source, PA Media

As we mentioned earlier, the UK's foreign secretary has said Greater Manchester's mayor should "do the right thing by the people" and agree to the highest level of Covid measures.

Dominic Raab said Labour's Andy Burnham was "effectively trying to hold the government over a barrel over money and politics".

Burnham later tweeted: "It's not about what we want for ourselves, Dominic Raab. It's about what we want for low-paid and self-employed people everywhere: fairness."

On Thursday, Burnham said Greater Manchester would "stand firm" against plans to move it into Tier 3, calling it a "flawed" and "unfair" policy.

He wants more financial support for people affected by tougher rules.

Meanwhile, discussions between central government and local leaders over putting the region into Tier 3 have stalled.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast earlier, Sir Richard Lees, the leader of Manchester City council, said no talks were planned for Friday.

He said that "at the moment there are no meetings in the diary between us and government", adding: "We are in a bit of a vacuum."

• Read more here

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the antiviral drug remdesivir has "little or no effect" on hospital patients with Covid.

Remdesivir has been touted as a potential therapy since the beginning of the pandemic and gained greater attention when it formed part of US President Donald Trump's cocktail of treatments.

But the WHO trial, published online, external, gives a damning verdict.

There is a bit of uncertainty in the data, but the study says it "absolutely excludes" the idea remdesivir can save a significant number of lives, and says the findings are "comfortably compatible" with the drug having no life-saving effect at all.

It is a similar message for preventing people needing ventilation or speeding up recovery.

The manufacturer, Gilead, says there is "more robust" evidence, external which includes another trial in the US that showed remdesivir cut hospital stays, external from 15 to 10 days.

So far, doctors have been raiding the cupboard for existing drugs that can fight coronavirus.

The results have been disappointing with malaria drugs, HIV drugs, MS drugs and now an Ebola drug (remdesivir). Only an old steroid – dexamethasone – has proven life-saving.

The attention is now turning to new experimental therapies such as antibodies designed in the lab to fight the virus and new, untested, antiviral drugs.

We are still waiting for the results of these trials, but the worry is that "new" in medicine tends to mean "expensive", and that will raise questions about who will have access to the drugs.

Around 47,000 Covid-19 infections are occurring each day across England, with daily deaths expected to hit 240 to 690 by 26 October, according to evidence presented to government scientists.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) biostatistics unit at Cambridge University published new predictions this week on how fast the epidemic is growing across the country.

It estimates cases are doubling in under seven days, with a "substantial proportion" of those being asymptomatic.

The figures are fed to the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, which provides real-time information to the government through the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), and to regional Public Health England (PHE) teams.

On 12 October, the MRC unit published a report saying: "Our current estimate of the number of infections occurring each day across England is 47,000.

"We predict that the number of deaths each day is likely to be between 240 and 690 on 26 October."

It said the daily number of infections was within the range of 28,900 to 74,900, with the best estimate being 47,000, and said the number of new infections is particularly high in the north-west of England, north-east of England and Yorkshire, followed by London and the Midlands.

It added the estimated growth rate for England was 0.09 per day.

Image source, Reuters

The Chinese city of Qingdao has almost finished testing its entire population of nearly 10 million people for Covid-19.

Authorities said earlier this week they planned to complete the tests over a period of five days. No new cases have been reported.

The mass testing was in response to the discovery of a dozen cases linked to a hospital in the port city.

Local health officials have now said the outbreak originated from two port workers who stayed at the hospital.

The pair used a scan room for examination, but the room was not properly disinfected before receiving other patients the following day, they said.

Qingdao sought to avoid a major lockdown, instead testing its residents but allowing people to come and go.

The Chinese authorities now have a strategy of mass testing even when a new coronavirus cluster appears to be relatively minor.

As the rise in confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK continues to gather momentum, are we headed for another full wave of the virus?

Here are five key numbers to watch:

1. The number of people being admitted to hospital
2. How many patients end up in intensive care
3. Will the death rate continue to rise?
4. Who is getting infected?
5. The rates in areas under extra restrictions

We've outlined how these numbers can be used to keep track of the outbreak here, looking at Scotland specifically.