TOP HEADLINES

• France may have to delay the rollback of lockdown restrictions after signs that Black Friday reopenings have flattened the downward trend in new cases, two government sources said. President Emmanuel Macron targeted a drop to 5,000 new cases per day by December 15, but this is now in doubt. 

• Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel told her party colleagues the country's existing lockdown measures would not be sufficient. "The situation is getting very serious: these measures will not be enough to get us through the winter," participants in the Monday meeting quoted her as saying.

• Turkey registered a record high 203 new COVID-related deaths on Monday, taking the total past 15,000. There were also 32,137 new cases, the health ministry said.

• Lithuania, now suffering the EU’s third-fastest rise in cases, has extended its lockdown until the end of this year. Lithuania has reported 1,037 cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks, triple its pre-lockdown rate and behind only Croatia and Luxemburg among the bloc's members.

• Hungary will maintain restrictions, including an 8 p.m. curfew, until at least January 11. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also banned New Year's Eve celebrations. "The solution is the vaccine, which is now within sight," Orban said. 

• Greece will not reopen schools, restaurants and courts until January 7, effectively extending most of the restrictions the country imposed last month. Greece enforced a nationwide lockdown in November and had already extended it twice since then.

• Denmark will implement further lockdown measures in parts of the country until January 3. Restaurants, museums, cinemas and other cultural institutions will close in 38 of 98 municipalities, including Copenhagen, while students in upper primary school and above will be sent home. 

• Russia has said there is no need to impose lockdown restrictions to curb the sharp rise in coronavirus cases since September, stating that experts see the current set of measures in place as sufficient.

• Millions of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine could be airlifted to Britain if the Brexit transition affects ports. "We have extensive plans," said junior foreign office minister James Cleverly.

• Angela Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun says he expects coronavirus vaccinations to start in Germany "in the very first days" of the new year – and Braun, a qualified doctor, has offered to help vaccinate people. 

• Russia has granted approval for clinical trials to be held for the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Ad5-Ncov involving 8,000 volunteers.

• Reports in Britain suggest Queen Elizabeth, 94, and her husband Prince Philip, 99, will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within weeks. The Mail on Sunday said the royal inoculation would "encourage more people to take up the vital jab."

ACROSS EUROPE

Ross Cullen in Paris

A leading professor from a Paris hospital says there is now a "stagnation" in the falling number of new daily coronavirus cases in France. With one week to go until the government plans to end national lockdown, there are worries the main target the president set out will not be hit. 

Emmanuel Macron said the nationwide confinement can be lifted if there are around, or under, 5,000 new COVID-19 infections a day by December 15. If that figure is achieved, then France will ease its national lockdown but continue to keep tight restrictions in place regarding evening movement, with lockdown replaced by a 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, which would itself be loosened for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Linda Kennedy in Budapest

Documentation on a Chinese vaccine is due to arrive in Hungary and be studied by Hungarian experts, the Foreign Ministry has said. It's suggested the documentation, and possible ampules, will be of the state-owned Sinopharm vaccine. After scrutiny, Hungary will decide whether or not to purchase this vaccine. The statement adds that the Russian vaccine is still being considered. 

Hungarians are expected to give gifts to fewer people this year, because of the pandemic. The average Hungarian is likely to buy presents only for immediate family, estimated as five or six people, with a total value of about $175, according to a joint survey by Hungarian retail giant Árukereső and research firm GKI Digital. 

Iolo ap Dafydd in London

Today is the UK's 21st century V-Day: Vaccine Day, the start of the largest vaccination program in the history of the National Health Service (NHS). 

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is being distributed to 50 English hospitals and is also being shared across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The authorities promise that no vaccine will be wasted, with a strategy in place to ensure everyone who receives the first jab, will also be delivered the second part of the vaccine in three weeks' time.

What is less certain is how long the immunization lasts, and whether this vaccine – or the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines which are in the process of being ratified – can stop transmission of COVID-19. For the authorities, this week will be the beginning of a marathon rather than the start of a sprint. The prize is to control the virus, and allow the four nations of the UK to return to some kind of normality in 2021.

CLICK: FIND OUT HOW THE CITIZENS OF NORLISK COPED AFTER BEING SUBMERGED IN SNOW

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