That's all from our coronavirus live coverage today. We'll be back with more updates tomorrow.

Today's pandemic news has been brought to you by Becky Morton, Doug Faulkner, Hamish Mackay and James Clarke.

Image source, EPA

We're about to close up for the day but if you are just joining us here is a reminder of what has been happening today.

• NHS organisations in England have been told to prepare for a possible extension of the Covid vaccination programme to all 12 to 15-year-olds
• The number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England rose by 5% last week, with all but two areas seeing an increase in case rates, according to the latest Test and Trace figures
• A further 38,281 people have tested positive across the UK with a further 140 deaths also reported
• A BBC radio presenter died due to complications from the AstraZeneca vaccine, a coroner has found

• Japan has suspended the use of about 1.63 million doses of the Moderna vaccine due to contamination
• Kenya says it will use the single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine in hard-to-reach rural areas
• The Australian Open tennis tournament will replace hotel quarantine with a two-week bio-secure bubble next year, after criticism from players at this year's event.

Image source, PA Media

Research is to be carried out into how long immunity lasts after a coronavirus vaccine. with scientists hoping this could help with the design of future jabs.

Some £1.5 million is being invested in understanding why some people get Covid-19 despite being jabbed or having had the virus before, while others do not.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid says the new research will "help us gain valuable insights", while public health leader Dr Susan Hopkins says the findings will be "essential" in concluding who is most at risk post-jab and for vaccine developers in designing boosters.

Research earlier this week concluded the protection provided by two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines starts to wane within six months.

One reasonable worst-case scenario suggests protection could fall to below 50% for the elderly and healthcare workers by winter.

Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI Education Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

School pupils in Northern Ireland will not have to self-isolate after coming into contact with a coronavirus case if they have recently tested positive for the virus themselves.

New guidance, issued by the Public Health Agency (PHA) ahead of the school term, says as long as a pupil is well they can stay in school but must avoid visiting care homes and hospitals.

Staff who are close contacts of a coronavirus case can keep working in school if they are fully vaccinated.

However, unvaccinated staff have to self-isolate for 10 days.

The PHA guidance for schools states: "Pupils who are close contacts but have already had a positive test result in the previous 90 days and have no new symptoms do not need to arrange a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or self-isolate.

"This is because it is possible for PCR tests to remain positive for some time after COVID-19 infection due to residual virus fragments (which are not infectious)."

Covid case rates in Wales have climbed to numbers not seen since January.

However, Public Health Wales figures show deaths and hospital admissions remain much lower, thanks to the vaccine rollout.

Rising cases were anticipated with restrictions easing and more mixing.

Case rates are currently above the "most likely scenario" modelled by scientists but the impact on hospitals remains within calculations.

The Wales case rate has now risen to 334.1 cases per 100,000.

One further death was also reported, bringing the average over the past seven days to 1.1 deaths a day.

At this stage during the second wave there was an average of 23 deaths per day.

Rhoda Odhiambo
BBC health reporter, Nairobi

Kenya says the main Covid-19 vaccine to be used in rural areas will be the one manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.

Chairperson of the country's vaccine taskforce, Dr Willis Akhwale, says hospitals in these areas do not have the infrastructure to store the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which require specialist equipment, such as very cold freezers.

When properly stored, the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine can last up to two years and can be easily distributed in hard-to-reach areas where vaccination rates are still low.

Dr Willis tells the BBC the AstraZeneca vaccine will also be used in hospitals in rural and urbans areas.

Of Kenya's 50 million population, 2.5 million people have so far received at least one jab. Of these, close to 800,000 are fully vaccinated.

Image source, Getty Images

A two-week bio-secure bubble is set to replace hotel quarantine at next year's Australian Open, tournament bosses say.

At this year's Grand Slam in February, players spent 14 days in hotel rooms with limited training time, because of the country's strict Covid rules.

The restrictions drew complaints from players, with some forced to isolate in their rooms for the duration.

Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley says the bubble will allow players "to move freely between the hotel and courts".

While some players were allowed up to five hours training time on closed courts at the 2021 competition, 72 who had been in contact with positive cases on flights to Australia had to isolate entirely in their rooms.

Read more.

There have been 38,281 new Covid cases and a further 140 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported across the UK, according to the latest government figures, external.

That is up from 36,572 and 113 deaths for the same day a week ago.

A further 68,076 first vaccine doses have been given as well as another 161,705 second jabs.

Image source, Google

A third of all schools in the Scottish Highlands have been affected by Covid, the area's council says.

Grantown, Kingussie, Culloden and Fort William's Lochaber secondary schools have "a significant number of year groups self-isolating".

Aviemore Primary School and Thurso's Pennyland Primary are closed to some pupils, while Kincraig's Alvie primary is requiring a one-day closure.

Highland Council says the region has seen an "exponential increase" in cases.

There are 203 schools in the Highland Council region.

On Wednesday, NHS Highland warned of a "large number of outbreaks" of Covid in schools in its area, which includes Argyll and Bute.

The health board says there have been more than 1,000 new cases in the local population in the past week - representing almost 10% of all cases in the region since the start of the pandemic.

As we heard earlier, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England is continuing rise.

Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Covid study, says the UK now has the highest Covid rates in Europe, despite the success of its vaccine rollout.

"The main difference between the UK and Europe is our lack of restrictions. In many parts of Europe, people are still wearing face coverings and observing some social distancing," the professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London says.

"In the UK, where we eagerly declared 'freedom' from Covid and did away with even the most basic social measures, Covid has found an opportunity to spread."

He adds that with schools returning "there's a good chance cases will continue to rise from here".

Image source, Getty Images

We are expecting an update to the UK's travel lists later today.

The lists are updated every three weeks by ministers, based on advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), external, which looks at the Covid situation in each country.

Last time the categories were updated the quarantine rules for fully-vaccinated travellers from France were dropped while Mexico was added to the red list.

Other changes included India, Qatar and the UAE moving from red to amber while Germany, Austria and Norway were among those to move to green.

Here is a reminder of which countries are currently in each category.

Image source, Getty Images

Pupils will be returning to the classroom across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in September, while in Scotland the new term has already started.

Many restrictions have been lifted but some safety measures will remain in place, including asking pupils to take tests before they return.

For schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, social distancing measures and rules around "bubbles", where pupils stay in a fixed group, have been relaxed.

But in Scotland, all staff must stay at least 1m (3ft) from pupils and colleagues when on school premises until the end of September.

Face coverings will initially be required in classrooms in Scotland and Northern Ireland but they will no longer be routinely advised in England and Wales.

You can read more about what the new school term will look like in different parts of the UK here.

Image source, PA Media

A campaign on radio, social and digital media to reassure parents and pupils it is safe to return to school in England has been launched by the government.

Science experiments, sport, music and drama are back on the timetable, while distancing rules, "bubble" groups and staggered starts have been axed.

All secondary pupils are also being urged to get tested either at school or in the community, before term starts.

But the Association of School and College Leaders says there are still concerns about the possible impact of Covid spreading among pupils, who are largely unvaccinated.

Attendance fell off dramatically towards the end of the summer term, as Covid cases were rising in the younger population.

Read more.

Covid case rates are rising in all regions of England, except London and Yorkshire and the Humber, according to the latest data from Public Health England.

South-west England has seen the highest rate with 481.7 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 22 August, up sharply from 351.8 the week before.

The East Midlands has the second highest rate at 360.9, up from 351.5. London has the lowest rate with 247.3, down from 277.6.

Rates in England are also continuing to rise in most age groups, PHE says, with the exceptions of children aged four and under, and adults aged between 20 and 39.

The highest rate is among 10 to 19-year-olds, with 616.5 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 22 August, up sharply week-on-week from 472.5. The lowest rate is among people aged 80 and over, at 95.2, up slightly from 90.1.

Over the past few weeks, Chinese sources have been amplifying a baseless claim that Covid-19 was made in the US.

You can listen to this report from Newshour on how the campaign has been conducted.

Image source, PA Media

The Covid-19 vaccine programme in England is estimated to have directly averted between 102,500 and 109,500 deaths, Public Health England says.

Previous estimates had put the number between 91,700 and 98,700 deaths.

Estimates for the number of hospital admissions directly averted by the programme are unchanged at more than 82,100.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

Supply chain issues, in part due to a shortage of lorry drivers, are affecting businesses across the UK.

One problem is that the pandemic has halted HGV driver training and testing for more than 12 months, according to the trade association Logistics UK.

And the Road Haulage Association adds that, alongside Brexit, this has led to the current shortfall of around 100,000 HGV drivers.

Trainee driver Hayley O'Beirnes has been speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live about the hurdles she has faced to get into the industry

"Any normal person would have thrown in the towel by now, what should have just taken a few months has taken nearly a year," she says.

Ms O'Beirnes - who starting training in February - says she has always wanted to be an arctic lorry driver, but delays and rising prices of training have stopped her from completing her training.

"I couldn't afford the £3,000, which is the average cost of doing training up front, I was forced to find a company that did finance."

More than £7m worth of excess masks, gowns and hand sanitiser from Wales are being donated to help Namibia fight its latest surge of coronavirus.

Namibia is currently experiencing its third wave of the pandemic, which has exposed its insufficient health infrastructure.

The Welsh government is also giving a further £500,000 grant for oxygen equipment and nurse training.

But Welsh Tory health spokesman Russell George is warning that the decision will "raise some eyebrows" as the African nation is "often accused of being besieged by corruption".

Disadvantaged pupils in Wales ate less fruit and vegetables, did less exercise and had more takeaways during lockdown school closures, research suggests.

Most pupils stayed home from March to June 2020 and again at the start of 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Academics from Swansea University say school structure can have a big impact on a child's diet, as children prepare to return to the classroom.

Researchers asked eight to 11-year-olds in Welsh primary schools to do an online survey about their health and wellbeing during the first lockdown period, from April to June 2020.

They found there were overall improvements in aspects of children's wellbeing, such as sleep and happiness with family, compared with similar surveys in the previous two years.

However, children receiving free school meals ate fewer fruit and vegetables, while more disadvantaged children also reported a reduction in physical activity.

Read more of the findings here.

Boris Johnson says he wants to see a "jobs-led recovery" from the pandemic with wage rises "rather than through taxation of other people".

He says that is his "strong preference" and that instinct is shared by most people in the UK.

The PM was speaking after some Tory backbenchers called for the planned ending of the universal credit uplift to be cancelled.

The £20-per-week increase, brought in last year as a temporary measure during the Covid pandemic and later extended, is set to end this autumn.