TOP HEADLINES

- Hungary's parliament has voted to extend the state of emergency and give extra power to Prime Minister Viktor Orban

- The postponed Tokyo Olympic Games will now take place between 23 July and 8 August 2021, the International Olympic Committee has confirmed.

- A further 180 people have died from COVID in the UK, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,408.

- The death toll in Italy has surpassed 10,000. Italy now has just under 4,000 more deaths from the virus than any other country.

- Spain's new, stricter lockdown measures kick in, with as all "non-essential" workers told to stay at home.

- UK's lockdown measures could last "up to six months," according to deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries.

- UK-based restaurant chain Carluccio's and rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse both file for administration, putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

- UK budget airline, easyJet has grounded its entire fleet of aircraft owing to the pandemic. Its staff have been asked to volunteer at temporary hospitals in London.

- All migrants with pending applications for residency in Portugal will be treated as residents until at least 1 July.

- France uses two cross-country, high-speed trains and a German military plane to transport critically ill COVID-19 patients away from the overwhelmed east of the country.

- Greece announces short-term financial support for businesses and struggling workers. The aid will include those who are self-employed.

- Austria are to make basic face masks compulsory in supermarkets, according to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. 

ACROSS EUROPE

By Ross Cullen in Paris

The French capital region, known as Ile-de-France, has 2,000 beds in intensive care units, but around 1,700 of them are currently occupied by patients and the health authorities believe that Ile-de-France is "genuinely close to saturation, it's a race against time."

The French finance minister spoke to a breakfast television show on Monday, saying he agrees with the OECD estimate that French GDP growth will be impacted this year by about three percentage points. Bruno Le Maire said independent workers, small companies and freelancers might receive more help than just €1,500 to €2,000 ($1,660 to $2,214) in March (depending on conditions). He denied there was a food shortage in France, saying supermarkets are well-stocked, but he did admit "there is tension over certain, specific products," as people continue to search for hand sanitizer and face masks.

By Rahul Pathak in Madrid

New stricter lockdown measures come into force in Spain on Monday. They follow Sunday's health ministry figures, which revealed 838 people had died from the coronavirus over the previous 24 hours. That's another record single-day increase. The new measures will last from 30 March 30 to 9 April and will confine all non-essential workers to their homes.  

People will still be able to go outside to buy food, medicines or to walk their dogs. The government says it is "hibernating" the economy in an effort to stop the health system from becoming overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients.

By Andrew Wilson in the UK

The Prime Minister, now suffering from the coronavirus, posted his thanks on social media to the 20,000 former NHS staff, doctors and nurses, who have come back to work to support the national medical effort.

EasyJet has grounded its entire fleet of planes and said it cannot give a date for when it will restart.

England's deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, says the government will review lockdown measures in three weeks' time, but she said it will be much longer before the UK reverts to a normal way of living.

It will be at least six months, she said, until a return to normal life could be considered. The government is forming a rapid-response unit within the Cabinet Office to work with social media to remove misinformation about the virus.

Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College London, said today there were some early signs of slowing in some of the indicators in the UK. He said the numbers have not yet plateaued, but the rate of increase has slowed.

Ferguson estimated that between 2 percent and 5 percent of the country might be infected.

By Guy Henderson in Berlin

As of Monday afternoon, Germany was reporting more than 62,000 cases of coronavirus with more than 541 deaths.

And there are increasing concerns that the rate of infection is continuing to rise at a rate the health system may not be able to cope with. Germany has some of the highest number of intensive care beds in Europe. But it also has a shortage of medical professionals, particularly nursing staff, to operate those beds.

The country has been in lockdown for a week or so now. Most businesses are closed, people are only allowed out when it's essential, including to exercise. They must do that in groups of no more than 2 people, and keep a distance of 1.5 meters at all times. A lot of people are not sticking to those rules. I've also seen police officers in the square behind me not enforcing them.

The economic costs of the lockdown are mounting. A report by a group that advises the German government now says that even if the lockdown ended in May, the economy would still contract by 2.8 percent this year. If it's extended further, the damage could be as much as a reduction of 5.4 percent.

So there is pressure from businesses and some regional officials to put a timeline on this, while perhaps stepping up testing even further so that those who've had coronavirus and should have built up some immunity can be spared the restrictions and head back to work.

But on Monday a government spokesman told journalists that with the infection rate rising as fast as it is, Germany's lockdown cannot be eased.

By Julia Lyubova in Geneva

Switzerland has entered week three of its coronavirus lockdown measures, during which public life has been shut down and only essential services have remained open. These measures will remain in place until 19 April. Government officials say the measures are having an effect but that not enough data are available and it's too early to draw conclusions.

Health minister Alain Berset told a local newspaper in an interview on Saturday that the coronavirus crisis "will not be over by mid-May."

In the meantime, health authorities in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino have called upon anyone with medical training to join the healthcare sector.  It is open to doctors or nurses who are not currently working in the health sector. The appeal comes as the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Switzerland reached 300 on Sunday. Ticino, which borders Italy, has almost a third of Switzerland's deaths, despite having just 4 percent of the country's population.

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES

From CGTN America: Trump extends social distancing guidelines

From CGTN China: Major industrial workers return to work 

From CGTN Africa: Nigeria locks down major cities, Lagos and Abuja, in a bid to curb COVID-19 cases.