James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

Basic maths shows us how quickly coronavirus cases can, theoretically, soar.

Around 4,000 infections a day, doubling every eight days, would be nearly 130,000 new daily cases by the end of October.

That is not guaranteed to happen but it gives a sense of how quickly a small problem can become a big one.

And a change in our behaviour, the “rule of six” or restrictions like those in north-east England could improve the situation.

The point of a national “circuit break” would be to achieve a controlled drop in the levels of coronavirus without needing a full lockdown.

This does two things - obviously it helps avoid having very high levels of the virus that could overwhelm hospitals.

But it also gives us more options. Any contact tracing programme or system of local lockdowns is far easier to implement when levels of the virus are low.

The higher the number of cases, the fewer targeted measures the government has to use.

The problem is once the circuit break is over, cases would begin to rise again and it may take multiple circuit breaks to get us through winter.

It is only September and Spring is still a very long way away.

Image source, Reuters

If you are just joining us here are the main coronavirus headlines you need to know so far on Friday:

• A short period of tighter England-wide restrictions – which could see hospitality businesses shut for a few weeks – are being considered by the UK government to slow a surge of coronavirus cases
• Scientists from Imperial College London say a device that is already being used in some hospitals to identify Covid patients can accurately diagnose a coronavirus infection within 90 minutes, without needing a specialist laboratory
• Personal protective equipment will be free for care homes until next March, as part of a UK government coronavirus plan for England this winter
• Restrictions affecting almost two million people have come into force in north-east England, in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. Across the UK, almost 10 million people are currently facing some form of additional restrictions
• The price of puppies has more than doubled during lockdown with dogs costing almost £1,900 on average
• And the Mayor of London has announced the city’s famous New Year’s Eve fireworks display has been cancelled due to the pandemic

Image source, EPA

There are signs in Latin America that the pandemic’s epicentre is moving to Argentina. The country broke its daily new infection record on Thursday, with almost 13,000 cases recorded - pushing the country’s total to more than 600,000 in total.

A nationwide lockdown introduced in March still remains in place, although from late August groups of 10 have been allowed meet outside and some restaurants able to operate. The measures had managed to control the spread of the virus, but on 5 September the country recorded more than 12,000 cases.

Meanwhile the virus appears to be stabilising or slowing down in hard-hit countries Brazil and Mexico. The latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show that of the three, Argentina is currently the worst-hit according to its population size. Its 14-day cumulative number of cases was 332 per 100,000 people on Thursday.

By contrast Brazil's was 199 cases per 100,000 people, down from a peak of 304 in early August. Mexico's number was 55.

More than 12,000 people have died in Argentina of Covid-19 since March.

Read more about coronavirus in Latin America.

Image source, Reuters

The traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display in London will not take place this year.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan confirmed the move in an interview with LBC. He said it was decided it would be too risky to have people gathering in the city centre in big numbers.

He said there would be an alternative televised event people could enjoy from their own homes, wherever they are in the UK.

Details are still being worked out, Mr Khan added.

Read more here.

As we've already reported today, a number of European countries are expected to announce new restrictions in response to rising cases.

Several places have announced record increases in daily infections, while others have seen their highest numbers in months.

Spain, France and the Czech Republic have seen some of the most dramatic spikes.

Most cases in Europe are currently being seen in younger people, but there are concerns they could spread the virus to more vulnerable older people.

And while testing capacity has grown since the early spring, the WHO has warned of "alarming rates of transmission across the region".

Image source, Reuters

Thailand has reported its first death from Covid-19 in more than 100 days. The 54-year-old Thai citizen had returned from Saudi Arabia, where he worked, earlier this month, a health official said.

Here are some other headlines from Asia:

• Confirmed cases in India rose by more than 96,000 on Friday to reach 5.2 million, according to official figures - the second highest number of infections in the world after the US. The figures are relatively small given India's 1.3bn population, but there are fears many cases may go undetected

• The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began, is re-opening to international flights after eight months of closure

• Officials in the South Korean capital Seoul are planning to sue a church they blame for a rise in infections for around $4m (£3m). Members of the Sarang Jeil congregation took part in large protests in the city in August and the church's leader is accused of disrupting efforts to track cases

Image source, Getty Images

The price of puppies in the UK has more than doubled during lockdown with dogs costing almost £1,900 on average.

Popular breeds have seen even sharper price increases, and puppies are often selling for £3,000 or more, according to a leading online marketplace.

But animal welfare charities have warned that high prices could encourage "puppy farming", smuggling or dog theft.

They are also concerned that it could lead to a dog welfare crisis if people move back to their workplace, instead of working from home.

Interest in getting a pet rose hugely after lockdown in late March, with high demand prompting many breeders to raise their prices.

Figures from the Pets4Homes website, based on about 150,000 adverts, showed the average price being asked from March to September was £1,883. But during the same period last year the average price was £888.

James Badcock
Madrid-based journalist

Image source, Reuters

While Spain suffers the highest levels of Covid-19 transmission in Europe, its capital Madrid is the sickest city in Spain.

The regional government, which manages public healthcare, is poised to introduce draconian restrictions on social activity - possibly confining the capital’s worst-hit areas, three months after Spain’s national lockdown ended.

Accounting for a third of the new cases detected in Spain in recent weeks, Madrid’s cumulative number of Covid-19 cases over two weeks has now reached 659 confirmed positives per 100,000 inhabitants. Some of the most crowded neighbourhoods in the city’s poor south are double that. The Spanish national average is 260. In the UK the number is 59, according to the European CDC.

Madrid's hospitals are approaching the levels of saturation that saw disastrous scenes in the spring, when ambulances were not sent to care homes and a massive field hospital was set up in the capital’s main conference centre.

Health workers’ representatives say some intensive care units have already reached capacity. Of 500 intensive care beds available in public hospitals across the region, 400 are now occupied by Covid patients. But the regional government points to plans to extend that capacity to more than 900.

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

People with health conditions that limit their activities count for nearly 60% of Covid-19 deaths - but just 16% of the population.

That's according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics covering deaths in England and Wales between March and July.

That definition of disability is based on responses to the 2011 census. People under the age of nine or those who have entered the country since 2011 were excluded from the analysis.

The ONS estimates that people whose daily activities are limited a lot or a little by health problems, which are expected to last for at least a year, accounted for almost six in 10 (59%) coronavirus deaths.

Analyses that adjusted for age, region and some measures of wealth/poverty showed that women whose activities are limited a lot by health conditions were 2.4 times more likely to die with Covid in the time period.

For men, the data suggested they were two times more likely to die.

For men and women whose daily activities are limited a little by a health condition, their risk was 1.6 times that of men and women without any such limitations.

For a more in-depth look at coronavirus and disabilities, read our feature here.

Image source, EPA

Russian opera star Anna Netrebko says she is in hospital with coronavirus-related pneumonia, but is expected to make a full recovery.

She fell ill after performing in the Bolshoi Theatre's post-lockdown opening show, Verdi’s Don Carlos, earlier this month.

Don Carlos has now been stopped, as another singer has coronavirus too.

“I don’t regret going back to performing because I strongly believe that we need culture, now as ever,” Netrebko tweeted.

The 48-year-old soprano is singing in hospital, her manager has said.

The Bolshoi in Moscow has social distancing rules for performances, and the audience wear masks.

St Petersburg’s famous Mariinsky Theatre was also hit by a Covid-19 outbreak last month, affecting about 30 performers, mostly ballet dancers.

Russia recorded 5,905 new cases in the past 24 hours – the highest daily tally since late July - and 134 deaths.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says demand for coronavirus tests has gone "through the roof".

He was responding to a question on BBC Radio 4's Today programme asking if the number of tests being requested was higher than had been anticipated by government scientific advisors.

While it was known demand would go up, the "challenge" was it had gone up "incredibly high", he said, especially from those who do not have symptoms, who should not be applying for a test.

If you've come into contact with someone who has tested positive, you should not request a test, he stressed. That's because you need to self-isolate for two weeks in any case, because of the incubation period of the virus.

He also noted that people feel they are more likely to catch the virus from a stranger - "but most people get it from someone they know, and know well" due to closer contact, he said.

Read more about who should get a test, and how to do it, here.

Rob Cameron
BBC Prague Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The 3,130 new infections recorded in the Czech Republic on Thursday are almost as many as for the whole month of March - and officials are warning of the risk of an exponential increase.

Face masks are mandatory in schools from today (20% of new infections are in school-aged children) and authorities warn new measures - due to be announced today - could be introduced quickly to flatten the curve.

A new version of the much-criticised contact tracing app e-Rouska is also being launched today. The original version didn't work on iPhones and drained battery life.

The government of PM Andrej Babis is facing severe criticism for watering down planned restrictions that were due to come into force on 1 September. In the end they were introduced anyway 10 days later, but critics say this was too late and these numbers are the result.

People arriving in England and Scotland from Singapore and Thailand will not have to quarantine from Saturday morning, as the two nations have been added to the list of safe "travel corridor" countries.

But those arriving from Slovenia and Guadeloupe will now have to spend two weeks in self-isolation.

Both have also been added to Wales' quarantine list, while arrivals there from Gibraltar and Thailand will not need to self-isolate.

The latest changes come into force at 04:00 BST on Saturday.

Get all the details about travel restrictions and quarantine requirements.

Yvette Tan
BBC News

Having already caught Covid-19, recovered, and gone back to work, Zakir Hossain Khokan thought his worst days were behind him.

But last month a new cluster developed at his dormitory, and like thousands of migrant workers in Singapore, he was ordered back into quarantine.

"Day and night, we are just inside one room," he says. "It's actually torturing our mind. It's like jail."

Singapore is home to more than 300,000 low-wage foreign workers from countries like India and Bangladesh, who mainly work in industries like construction and manufacturing.

Their right to live in Singapore is tied to their job and their employer must provide accommodation, at a cost.

They commute from their dorms in packed vans to building sites where they work and take breaks alongside men from other crowded dorms - perfect conditions for the virus to spread.

Read the full story here.

Care homes are to be given free personal protective equipment until March.

It’s part of a winter coronavirus plan for England's care homes that will be published later by the government.

A new chief nurse is also going to be appointed to provide more guidance for nurses working in the care home sector.

The government has already said care homes, which were hit very badly by the first peak of the virus, would get £546m to help battle Covid-19.

The money will help to pay care workers their full wages when they are self-isolating, and ensures carers only work in one care home, reducing the spread of the virus.

The BBC's social affairs correspondent Alison Holt said that for a sector still reeling from a very high number of deaths, "this plan is important".

But whilst welcoming the plan, some directors of council care services have said it does not address the need to pay care staff better.

It also does not provide the funding needed to meet the expected increase in demand, particularly for home care, over the winter, they say.

Guidance issued last month by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not written by CDC scientists and was published despite their objections, the New York Times reports., external

The advice said it was not necessary to test people who were not displaying symptoms, even if they had been exposed to the virus - at a time when public health officials were pushing for increased testing.

Officials told the newspaper that the Department of Health and Human Services rewrote the guidance before posting it to the CDC's website, adding that the document contained "elementary errors".

The CDC's head said in a statement that the guidelines had "received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts".

The US has recorded the world's highest numbers of cases and fatalities since the pandemic began, with deaths approaching 200,000.

A leading epidemiologist says the rising number of infections in the UK is a "real concern".

Dame Anne Johnson, of University College London, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that while a rise had been anticipated, it was happening at a "rather faster rate" than hoped.

Data shows people are having a larger number of contacts than expected.

The main concern is the "speed of the rate of increase" and the need to suppress that before it hits "more vulnerable communities", she said.

There are "clearly problems" with testing, she added, even though we are able to test more than during the peak earlier this year.

"We must have a robust testing programme, but testing in its own right... does not prevent infection," she said, stressing the need to reduce the number of close contacts, maintain social distancing and strictly practise hygiene measures like hand washing.

Frances Mao
BBC News, Sydney

Image source, EPA

The Australian government says come mid-October it will allow 6,000 citizens a week - 2,000 more than currently allowed - to come home as Melbourne’s second wave comes under control.

PM Scott Morrison said more than 24,000 Australians stranded overseas had registered to return.

In July, the country capped the number of returnees to ease the strain on the mandatory hotel quarantine system. Mistakes in that system had led to the virus's re-emergence in June in the state of Victoria.

However, expats had complained this policy meant flights home were near impossible to secure - with the London to Sydney route for example taking only 30 passengers per flight.

“With the success we have had as a country in recent months… we can start helping Australians getting home again,” Mr Morrison said.

With possible national restrictions in England in the spotlight this morning, Labour has sharply criticised the government for ongoing issues and delays in the testing system.

"Labour warned months ago that unless the government spent the summer fixing the testing regime then we would face a bleak winter," said shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth.

"The government ignored that advice, the testing regime is collapsing and so it is not surprising national restrictions are back on the table."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock meanwhile insisted that capacity was being ramped up.

"We are on track to increase the capacity on testing to half a million a day," he said, adding the government planned to be operating at this figure "by the end of October".

Read more about what's going wrong with coronavirus testing.

Image source, PA Media

Another national lockdown in England is the "last line of defence" but would happen if needed, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said, as he warned the UK was in a "very serious situation".

He told BBC Breakfast there had been an "acceleration" in cases in recent weeks and "we need to take action".

"It is absolutely critical that people follow the rules," he said, stressing the importance of the new "rule of six" in England, and the basics of wearing face coverings, washing hands and giving space to others.

If all of that is done, and if those who test positive isolate, "we can avoid having to take serious further measures", he added.

But, he stressed, national lockdowns can "keep people safe".

He said it was vitally important to have local lockdowns like the one that has come into force in the North East today - adding that he would be making an announcement about further action later. It's thought it could concern more measures for Lancashire.