Covid-19: Wales set for 'more normal' Christmas and travel joy for Novavax volunteers

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.

People in Wales can look forward to a more normal Christmas than last year - as long as nothing unexpected happens - Mark Drakeford has said. Setting out his autumn and winter plan, the first minister said he expected businesses to be able to stay open. But if unexpected pressures emerge, such as a new variant which risks overwhelming the NHS, restrictions could be reintroduced.

People who took part in trials of Covid vaccines which haven't been approved yet will be offered two doses of another vaccine from next week, health officials say. It means more than 15,000 volunteers who received Novavax or other jabs will finally be able to travel abroad with fewer restrictions. Darren Green, 51, who received Novavax in a trial, said he "felt a bit emotional" when he heard the news and he would no longer have to cancel a trip abroad with friends.

There's more good news for travellers, after the Foreign Office lifted its advice to avoid holidays in 51 destinations, including the Bahamas, Jamaica and Cameroon. The change will make it easier for visitors to get travel insurance - but people should still check for other entry requirements such as proof of vaccination or testing and quarantine rules. Meanwhile, the transport secretary has said he hopes to relax rules on testing in time for families returning from half-term holidays at the end of October. There are plans to allow fully vaccinated people coming to England to take a cheaper lateral flow test, rather than a PCR test, two days after their arrival. But Grant Shapps did not give an exact date for when the requirements would change. Catch up on the latest changes to the UK's travel rules here.

The US added a disappointing 194,000 jobs in September, as the Delta variant of coronavirus continued to drag on the economy, official figures show. The unemployment rate fell from 5.2% in August to 4.8% - but with 7.7 million out of work, unemployment remained considerably higher than before the pandemic. The data was collected in mid-September, when the spread of Delta across the US was near its peak, and experts say Americans have been eating out and travelling less, as well as delaying their return to the office because of this.

A professor who recovered from Covid is to sing a new piece of choral music based on the diaries of nurses who treated him when he was in intensive care. Prof Peter Johnstone, 72, spent nearly three months at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, last year. Later this month he'll be one of the singers at the London premiere of the work, which features lyrics based on diaries written at the end of each shift to help fill the gaps in his memory when he regained consciousness.

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