TOP HEADLINES
· People who are vaccinated against COVID-19, have antibodies or test negative can travel to Greece this summer, Tourism Minister Harry Theocharis has said. Tourism accounts for one-fifth of the economy in the country, which has led to calls for an EU-wide vaccination certificate to help unlock travel.
· Johnson & Johnson has told the EU it is facing supply issues that may complicate plans to deliver 55 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the second quarter of the year. The jab, which requires only one dose for protection, is expected to be approved by the bloc's regulator on March 11.
· Hungarian hospitals are under increasing strain as the number of coronavirus patients rose to 8,270, exceeding a peak in December. Hungary imposed strict new lockdown measures yesterday in an attempt to curb a rise in infections.
· Spain has again extended its ban on arrivals from the UK, Brazil and South Africa until the end of March to avoid the spread of new coronavirus strains.
· Bosnia has reported a record number of daily deaths from COVID-19, 48, with the capital Sarajevo going into lockdown next weekend for the first time since last May. Earlier, the Balkan country said it was "justifiably unhappy" after failing to yet to receive any of the promised shots from the EU-backed COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.
· Adienne, an Italian-Swiss pharmaceutical company, has agreed to produce Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in Italy from July 2021, the first such deal in the EU.
· Meanwhile, the developers of Sputnik V have demanded an apology from and questioned the neutrality of the European Medicines Agency after an EMA official urged EU members to hold off fast-tracking emergency authorization for the jab until it had been approved by the bloc's health regulator.
· Jerome Salomon, the top official of France's health ministry, has said authorities are not considering a regional lockdown around Paris, despite strain on hospitals in and around the capital. Medical directors in the region had ordered hospitals to cancel 40 percent of regular procedures to make space for COVID-19 patients.
· UK Health Minister Matt Hancock has hailed an "important moment in our national recovery" in announcing the nation's Nightingale hospitals are to close from next month. The seven emergency field hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients were rarely used amid staffing issues.
· France is using only 24 percent of its AstraZeneca doses, compared with 82 percent for vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, and 37 percent for the Moderna shot, according to latest government data. Reuters reports a lack of trust in the AstraZeneca shot, despite multiple scientific studies indicating its safety and efficacy.
· Italy, which has recorded more than 100,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 65. The government had initially blocked the jab in that age group amid doubts over the vaccine's efficacy and a lack of data. Norway has also approved the shot for the over 65s.
· The Netherlands will extend its coronavirus curfew until March 31 with exceptions for next week's general election, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said. Four days of riots broke out when the overnight curfew, the first in the Netherlands since World War II, was introduced on January 23.
· Greece is mourning its youngest COVID-19 victim, a 37-day-old baby. The baby boy was brought to an Athens children's hospital last month and is one of nearly 6,800 deaths with the virus in the country since the start of the pandemic. "Today, grief is unbearable," said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
ACROSS EUROPE
Toni Waterman in Brussels
Ursula von der Leyen says the European Commission is "tired of being the scapegoat" when it comes to the slow roll-out of vaccines across the bloc. In an interview with several media outlets, the Commission's president placed the blame on manufacturers and had the harshest words for AstraZeneca.
"We are seeing that AstraZeneca is delivering less than 10 percent of what was originally planned for the first quarter for the EU," she said. She added: "We expect the company to redouble its efforts to catch up."
The Anglo-Swedish firm was expected to deliver 100 million doses in the first quarter, which means the company is coming up 90 million doses short so far.
Pfizer and Moderna – the other two manufacturers to have vaccines approved for use in the EU – have also had deliveries problems in Q1. The Commission says it expects the bloc to receive 300 million vaccine doses in the second quarter of the year.
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Ross Cullen in Paris
A "firm order" has been announced for hospitals in the Paris capital region to reduce their non-COVID-19 activities by 40 percent to free up space to care for patients with the virus. The number of people being treated in intensive care is rising and approaching the November 2020 peak during the second wave of infections.
A lockdown for the Paris capital region "is not top of the agenda," said the head of the French public health agency. Jerome Salomon added such a move should only be discussed "if hospitals cannot hold on anymore." Six of the 10 regions in France where the infection rate is the highest are in the Paris capital region.
Meanwhile, the French Pacific overseas territory of Wallis and Futuna has imposed a two-week lockdown after 36 cases were discovered in the South Pacific islands.
Julia Chapman in Budapest
Hungary's Chief Medical Officer Cecilia Muller has said the number of patients on a ventilator has doubled in the past two weeks, as hospitalizations from COVID-19 continue to rise. She warned that the current situation was placing an "extraordinary burden on the care system" and more young people are becoming seriously ill.
The reproduction rate of the virus is currently 1.4. New restrictions came into effect this week in an effort to bring infections under control.
Despite delays to the vaccination campaign over the weekend, Hungary has now inoculated more than 1 million people with one dose, around 10 percent of the country's population.
Rahul Pathak in Madrid
Women in Madrid defied fears over the pandemic with a socially distanced gathering in Puerta del Sol central square to mark International Women's Day. They held banners opposing fascism and called for an end to violence and discrimination against women.
The corresponding march last year was thought to be a major "super spreader" event in the initial wave of coronavirus that swept through Spain. It meant a similar size march was banned this year, so women used alternative means to mark the day. At 8 p.m. many appeared in windows and balconies across Spain to bang pots and other utensils.
The largest gathering took place in Barcelona, where organizers asked the 4,500 people to stand still instead of marching.
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