Thanks for following our live coverage of the Welsh Government's latest update on the coronavirus pandemic in Wales.

What we learned today:

• A "fire-break" lockdown of two to three weeks is being planned and could be announced on Monday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said
• It would have similar curbs to daily life as the earlier lockdown which ran from March to July, but would be time-limited
• Keeping schools open during this time would be a "top priority", the first minister added
• Plaid Cymru called on the "fire-break" to be implemented straight away
• Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies demanded an emergency recall of the Senedd on Monday to discuss the matter before any announcement is made

Until our next live blog, we'll keep you updated via the BBC News website and social media channels.

Stay safe this weekend.

Five more people with Covid are confirmed to have died in Wales.

This is how the death rate has changed since the start of the pandemic.

Five further deaths with coronavirus have been reported in Wales on Friday.

Two deaths occurred in the Cwm Taf health board area of south Wales.

There was one death in each of the Cardiff and Vale, Aneurin Bevan, and Swansea Bay health board areas.

Children living in parts of the UK where coronavirus rates are high will still be able to come to Wales to play sport.

From 18:00 BST tonight, people living in Covid hotspots across the UK will be banned from entering Wales, after a change in the law.

It had already been illegal for people to enter parts of Wales which are under local lockdown measures.

Under the changes, people with a "reasonable excuse" will still be able to travel into Welsh communities. This includes work, or voluntary services, if they cannot do so from home.

The Welsh Government has also said that children and young people will be able to travel to play sport, or for other activities such as dance or drama classes.

Of the 979 new cases reported to Public Health Wales today, the highest number was reported in Cardiff.

The capital had 175 new cases confirmed on Friday.

Cardiff now has the highest seven-day case rate in Wales, with 236.8 cases per 100,000 of the population - the only county in Wales with a case rate over 200.

The second-highest number of new cases was in Rhondda Cynon Taf, where 120 new cases were reported.

Forty patients and four members of staff at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport have now tested positive for Covid.

An outbreak was declared by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board on Monday.

By today, the numbers had risen from 14 patients to 40, with staff also infected.

A no-visiting policy has been reintroduced at the hospital, with the exception of visits agreed for maternity and paediatric patients.

Image source, Robyn Drayton/Geograph

Five more people with coronavirus in Wales have died, Public Health Wales has confirmed.

It brings the total number of people known to have died with the virus to 1,703.

On Friday, 979 new cases of Covid were reported by health boards in Wales.

It means the total known number of people to have tested positive for the virus to date stands at 34,005.

GCSE exams will go ahead in November in Wales, despite plans for a "fire-break" lockdown, the education minister has said.

Kirsty Williams tweeted an update following the first minister's announcement that a national lockdown could be confirmed in a matter of days.

Ms Williams said: "There will be an opportunity to sit core GCSEs in English Language, Mathematics, Mathematics-Numeracy and Welsh Language in November 2020 as planned.

"Other qualifications will be available in January 2021 and as part of the summer 2021 series.

"As the FM said today, keeping schools open is a top priority for the @WelshGovernment and we’ll do everything we can to maximise education and minimise disruption."

With large gatherings still banned, and a "fire-breaker" lockdown potentially starting in the next few days, what does it mean for Bonfire Night?

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service tweeted that organised firework displays were off, due to Covid.

People who are classed as vulnerable to coronavirus should be told to isolate rather than see a national lockdown imposed, an opposition politician in the Welsh Parliament has said.

David Rowlands - who has quit the Brexit Party to join the new Independent Alliance for Reform - said: “Quite frankly we don’t believe this has been handled in the right way at all.

"For instance, even without lockdown the vast majority of people in this country would not catch this disease, and of those who will 80% will only have very, very mild (symptoms) or not know that they have it.

“What we ought to be doing is concentrating on making sure that those who are vulnerable to this disease are isolated in some way, particularly in care homes and hospitals.”

People in Wales have been warned that "things are going to get tougher" in the coming weeks.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said that stricter measures would mean people would have to make many sacrifices in a bid to try and get coronavirus under control.

But he said: "It is far better that we all act together now, minimise the number of meetings you have with other people indoors, and only travel when you really are sure that you need to do so.

"Those are the simple contributions, together with social distancing, hand washing, all the things we all know make a difference.

"That will shorten the period of time we all have to live under these difficulties and make what we're doing more effective.

"That's the message that people need to take today."

First Minister Mark Drakeford has shared a "heat map" video showing how levels of Covid community infection have changed across Wales since the start of September.

Lancashire has agreed to move into tier three - the top level of England Covid restrictions - from Saturday.

The "very high" alert level measures include pub closures and bans on household mixing indoors, in private gardens and most outdoor venues.

However, gyms and leisure centres would not close, unlike in the Liverpool City Region - the other area in tier three.

Some local council leaders said they had been "bullied" into accepting the deal by Downing Street.

However, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK government had "worked intensively with local leaders" to agree the move.

He added that an "unrelenting rise in cases" in the north-west England county had meant "we must act now".

Civic leaders in Greater Manchester have rejected attempts to move their area into tier three.

Image source, Getty Images

Any "fire-breaker" lockdown in Wales would not be open ended, the first minister has said.

Currently about 2.3 million people are living under local lockdown restrictions, which are being reviewed on a weekly basis.

But First Minister Mark Drakeford said a potential "short, sharp" lockdown would have a set period of time.

"After that defined period of time, a different set of rules will be necessary," he said.

"It will not be prolonged indefinitely, in the way that the regime earlier in the year had to be prolonged, because that wouldn't be a circuit breaker."

Mr Drakeford said such a measure would be "a very different application of the technique".

Keeping schools open during any "fire-break" lockdown is a "top priority", Wales' first minister has said.

Mark Drakeford has said a short national lockdown, which could be announced on Monday, would be similar to measures back in March, at the height of the pandemic.

At that time schools were closed to all but children of essential workers, and those with specific needs.

But at the press conference today, Mr Drakeford said: "We will do everything we can to keep schools open.

“Whether we are able to do that entirely is still a matter for the detail of the discussion that goes on.

“But as a priority I reaffirm that for everybody today.”

Schools in Wales are already due to close over the last week of October for half-term.

Any "fire-break" lockdown period would be similar to when Wales was under national lockdown in March, the first minister has said.

At the end of March, as cases rose, all but essential travel was banned and pubs, bars, gyms and non-essential shops were closed, with people only allowed out for exercise once a day.

Schools were also shut to all but children of essential workers and those with additional needs.

Today, Mark Drakeford said the fire-break, which could last up to three weeks, would work as it worked back in March and April.

He said "essential travel was possible, even at the most serious moment of the national lockdown, and what we plan to do is to replicate [that] as closely as possible".

The situation "won't be identical because there are other things we have to think of" seven months on, Mr Drakeford added.

He said people would find a circuit-breaker situation "pretty familiar" to what they faced before, although the lockdown earlier in the year was "of course far longer".

Wales is considering a circuit-breaker lockdown which First Minister Mark Drakeford calls a "fire break".

Circuit breakers have been used in some countries such as Singapore and Israel as way of reducing the number of cases of coronavirus by stopping the ways it can spread.

But how do they work? How long is a Covid circuit breaker? How can it help fight coronavirus?

BBC health correspondent Laura Foster, external explains it all in a minute.

Welsh ministers are drawing up plans for a new business support package before deciding whether to press ahead with a “fire-break” lockdown, the first minister has said.

The Welsh Government has already announced £140m in businesses support in the latest phase of its economic recovery plan.

But Mark Drakeford said he would need to go “above and beyond that” if a fire-break went ahead.

He has also written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to ask for UK-wide business support to be aligned with a fire-break lockdown.

“We know that there is more work we have to do to make sure that we have all the details available to us as a cabinet when we come to that final decision,” he said.

“And absolutely key to that final decision will be the package of business support that we are able to put together.”

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed he was waiting until Monday to announce whether there will be a "fire-break" lockdown in order to plan for it properly.

He said the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) said such a lockdown could be used in a "planned and pre-emptive way, rather than a reactive way".

Mr Drakeford said time had to be allowed to "talk to all those of us who have to play a part in this decision".

He said he had spent all day on Thursday in meetings on the matter, including talks with all 22 local authority leaders in Wales.

A so-called "fire-breaker" lockdown is not a "magic wand" which will "make coronavirus disappear", Wales' first minister has said.

Speaking at the Welsh Government press briefing, Mark Drakeford said discussions were ongoing about when to impose the short national lockdown.

But he added: “Our ambition is that if we do - and it's still an if - if we do decide on a circuit breaker, that will be sufficient to take us through to Christmas.

“I can’t offer a guarantee…that it would not be necessary to take further measures later in the winter, but I'm focused on the immediate situation, the immediate difficulties faced by our national health service by the continuing spread of the virus in all parts of Wales.

"We have to act to deal with that now in this planned and pre-emptive way."