Today's live page was edited by Mal Siret and Suzanne Leigh and written by Penny Spiller, Marie Jackson, Vanessa Buschschluter, Emma Harrison and David Walker.

We're about to pause our live coverage for now - thanks for joining us! To recap, here are the key developments from the UK and around the world in the past 24 hours:

• The US has indicated it will not participate in international coalition efforts to find and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine because the World Health Organization is involved. A White House spokesman said the US did not want be constrained "by multilateral organisations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China"
• Parts of Greater Manchester will no longer have lockdown restrictions eased as planned following a government U-turn
• Millions of pupils in England and Wales are returning to school after the unprecedented shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic
• Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 83, has tested positive for coronavirus and is isolating at home, his staff say
• Three Paris St-Germain players have tested positive for coronavirus, the Ligue 1 football club said. They have not been named
• Cheap steroids can save the lives of patients who are critically ill with Covid-19, studies show
• South Korea is seeing a surge in critically ill Covid-19 patients - most of them aged over 60

Image source, John Cushing

Some UK holidaymakers in Portugal have spoken to the BBC about changing their flights amid reports the country is about to be taken off the government's safe travel list.

Sources have told the BBC that ministers are considering reimposing quarantine measures for those arriving in the UK from Portugal as coronavirus cases rise.

John Cushing is cutting his holiday short to make sure his daughter gets home to the UK before any potential restrictions.

But he had to stump up £1,000 for flights home on Thursday, which is three times as expensive as the return flights he had already paid for.

"I never thought they would re-impose quarantine after giving Portugal the all-clear," John told the BBC. "The airlines have us over a barrel and don't seem to have any sympathy."

Read more from the holidaymakers here

Image source, Chris Allen/Geograph

A council placed under local lockdown restrictions has said it is facing a multi-million pound overspend as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire said it overspent by £7.7m during the first quarter of the 2020/21 financial year, £4.64m of which went on fighting the outbreak.

The authority, parts of which have now been removed from tighter restrictions, has called on the government to help.

The BBC has approached the government for a response.

Read more here

Image source, Warner Bros

Sci-fi blockbuster Tenet has given a welcome boost to the UK and Ireland's cinemas, taking £5.33m in its first week on release.

Christopher Nolan's spy thriller is the first major studio release since cinemas began reopening in July.

Tenet opened in more than 600 UK and Irish cinemas last week having had its launch delayed several times.

The Showcase cinema chain said its ticket sales increased by 75% ahead of the film's eagerly anticipated release.

Read more

Image source, Lois Johnson-Smith

Earlier we told you about the UK government’s £2bn "Kickstart" scheme, which aims to help young people struggling to get work during the pandemic.

The initiative will pay employers £1,500 for every 16-24 year old they train - the aim being to help those people build the skills they need to find a job.

It comes as the UK furlough scheme, referred to earlier at PMQs, ends next month.

Lois Johnson-Smith, from Lincolnshire, graduated from college this year after completing a course in musical theatre and was due to start work in July in a local entertainment venue.

But the job was put on hold as the coronavirus crisis shuttered theatres and concert halls across the country.

The 19-year-old likes the idea of Kickstart - which offers its first placements from November - having been unable to find work for months.

"It's really hard to get a job at the moment," she said. "I'm trying my best."

Read more here

Image source, Getty Images

More now on former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has tested positive for coronavirus.

The 83-year-old media tycoon has suffered other health setbacks in recent years - a severe heart attack in 2016 and emergency bowel surgery in 2019.

He has been beset by financial scandals with a conviction for tax fraud in 2013 - which saw him ejected from the Italian Senate - and another conviction in 2015.

Despite being temporarily banned from holding public office, he led his centre-right Forza Italia party to moderate electoral success in 2018. A year later, with his ban lifted, he won himself a seat in the European Parliament at the age of 82.

His staff say he is isolating at his home and he will continue to support candidates of Forza Italia.

Italian news agency Ansa quoted Forza Italia politician Sestino Giacomoni telling other party members that, "despite everything, he is fine and he wanted to let you know that he will continue to campaign".

Read more on Silvio Berlusconi's eventful career here.

Image source, PA Media

A senior Bank of England official has cast doubt on the UK government's drive to get workers back to the office as coronavirus curbs are eased.

Alex Brazier, the bank's executive director for financial stability, told a committee of MPs that a "sharp return" to "dense office environments" should not be expected.

Social distancing guidelines in the workplace and public transport capacity were two factors holding people back and a "more phased return" should be expected.

"I feel safe coming to work, but I quite understand why many people might not," he said in evidence to the Treasury Committee.

"It's not possible to use office space, particularly in central London and dense places like that, with the intensity that we used to use it."

Read more here

Image source, Getty Images

Teachers and teaching unions in the Spanish capital, Madrid, have reacted angrily after a call for staff to have coronavirus antibody tests ahead of the new term saw huge queues form across the city.

"If a teacher didn’t have the coronavirus when they arrived, they will be infected now," said one queuing teacher, quoted in El Confidencial on Wednesday.

School staff received the request on Tuesday to go to one of five testing centres in the city between Wednesday and Monday. But by midday on Wednesday, the queues were so long that most tests had to be suspended.

Image source, Getty Images

Esteban Álvarez, president of the Madrid Association of High School Principals, told El Pais, external: “There are thousands of us, it’s crazy to bring us all together.”

As we reported earlier, at least a quarter of Spain's new infections are in the capital. The city has seen 14,871 new cases in the past week.

The number of coronavirus cases in the UK is slowly rising, UK government statistics show.

There have been a further 1,508 cases reported in the UK and 10 deaths, according to the daily figures, external.

A total of 41,514 people who have tested positive for coronavirus have died in the UK.

Click here if you want to find out how many confirmed coronavirus cases there are in your area.

Image source, Reuters

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has tested positive for coronavirus, his staff said in a statement.

Berlusconi, 83, is in isolation at his home in Arcore, near Milan, and will continue to work from there, the statement added.

There's some good news from Iceland after a study of 30,000 citizens found that antibodies giving immunity to Covid-19 can last for at least four months after the initial infection. This is far longer than previous studies have suggested.

The study, carried out by the Icelandic biotech company deCODE Genetics, measured the antibody levels in Icelanders who became infected earlier this year. Of a group that received a laboratory-tested confirmed diagnosis of Covid-19, more than 90% saw antibody levels rise during the first two months before they plateaued, remaining stable for four months.

The results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, external, contrasts with smaller studies which suggested antibodies disappeared quickly. An editorial accompanying the article said the results provided hope that "immunity to this unpredictable and highly contagious virus may not be fleeting".

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

England is under pressure to reconsider quarantine rules for Greece after Scotland and Wales introduced new measures over concerns about rising coronavirus cases.

From tomorrow anyone from Scotland who travels to Greece will need to self-isolate on their return.

Welsh passengers arriving back from the island of Zakynthos will have to do the same.

Meanwhile, ministers are considering reimposing quarantine measures for those arriving in the UK from Portugal as coronavirus cases rise, sources have told the BBC.

No announcement on travel rules for Greece or for Portugal is expected today.

Travel announcements usually take place on a Thursday or Friday, Transport correspondent Tom Burridge says.

Our correspondent says the UK government's rules "has been a messy affair".

"The picture has been complicated further by the fact that the quarantine is a public health policy and so the Welsh and Scottish Governments can diverge from Westminster and classify countries differently," he says.

"Now the Welsh government is bringing in testing on arrival for passengers too.

"That's awkward for the UK government because, for months, the aviation sector has been asking ministers to give their backing to testing at airports so people who test negative wouldn't have to quarantine for the full 14 days."

Read more here

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us, here are your main UK coronavirus headlines this Wednesday afternoon.

• Cheap steroids can save the lives of patients who are critically ill with Covid-19, studies show
• Parts of Greater Manchester will no longer have lockdown restrictions eased as planned following a government U-turn
• England's exams regulator, Ofqual, says it warned the government of the risk of widespread dissatisfaction with its emergency grading system
• It comes as millions of pupils in England and Wales return to school after the unprecedented shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic
• Scotland's deputy first minister has defended a decision to keep pubs open in greater Glasgow despite new limits on social contact, saying a rise in Covid cases was driven by household contacts and not the hospitality sector
• Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reassured recently elected Tory MPs there will not be a "horror show of tax rises with no end in sight", as the government deals with the costs of coronavirus
• And ministers are facing pressure to decide whether tourists returning to England from Greece should quarantine, after Scotland and Wales introduced their own measures

Image source, Getty Images

An investigation into the use of the South African government's Covid-19 relief fund has revealed "frightening findings", the country's auditor general has said.

A report by Kimi Makwetu, who has been tracking the spending of 500 billion rand ($26bn; £19bn), detailed overpricing and "potential fraud".

He said in some cases personal protective equipment (PPE) was bought for five times more than the price the national treasury had advised.

The report also flagged up 30,000 relief grants which "require further investigation".

The allocated funds were meant to help vulnerable households with food parcels, unemployment grants, support small business, farmers and to also procure PPE.

Read more on this story here.

Image source, PA Media

The UK's Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reassured recently elected Tory MPs there will not be a "horror show of tax rises with no end in sight", as the government deals with the costs of the coronavirus pandemic.

He urged the 2019 Conservative intake to show trust to overcome the "short-term challenges" the party faces.

Some MPs have expressed fears U-turns are hurting the government's standing.

Mr Sunak accidentally revealed the wording of his statement while holding his notes outside 11 Downing Street.

Read more here

Image source, Reuters

Education officials in Uzbekistan have found a way to hold crucial university entrance exams during the pandemic - stage them outdoors.

Over two weeks, more than 1.4 million applicants will take the three-hour exam sitting at desks on the running tracks or walkways of sports arenas. The massive exercise began on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of youngsters turning up at stadiums.

They are competing for about 150,000 places under a centralised admissions system.

Uzbekistan - a former Soviet republic in Central Asia - has just ended its second national lockdown after a surge in cases over the summer threatened to buckle its healthcare system. The country has so far reported 42,370 coronavirus cases with 324 confirmed deaths.

Image source, AFP

Bosses of the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, have confirmed 169 people will lose their jobs at the attraction because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Eden Project said in July it had lost more than £7m this financial year.

Bosses said they were "gutted" to make the decision following a six-week consultation period during July and August.

The cuts will see the equivalent of 122 full-time jobs go, out of a total 375 full-time equivalent roles.

The project confirmed 72 of those leaving took voluntary redundancy.

Image source, Getty Images

Three Paris St-Germain players have tested positive for coronavirus, the Ligue 1 football club said on Wednesday.

The French champions, who lost in the Champions League final last month, have not named the players.

"All of the players and coaching staff will continue to undergo tests in the coming days," a club statement said.

More on this story here.

Image source, WIKIPEDIA/HENRY HERING/NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

We've clapped, drawn rainbows and raised funds. Now one primary school in England has found another way to say thank you to the NHS for its work during the pandemic.

Brookhill Leys Primary School, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, is changing its name to The Florence Nightingale Academy.

Florence Nightingale - a Derbyshire-raised nurse in the 1800s - changed the way people nursed, becoming a pioneer of stopping the spread of infection and disease in hospitals.

Head teacher Jacquie Sainsbury, who herself contracted coronavirus just after lockdown, said it was an "opportunity to acknowledge and thank our NHS".

She said the virus had knocked her sideways and she was still suffering months on.

"Having to prepare a school for reopening when you've not got the energy you normally have - it's really serious," she said.

Read more on the story here.