TOP HEADLINES

- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca it must deliver on its contractual obligations to supply the EU with sufficient doses of its vaccine, after the company said there would be delays in the first months of 2021.

- Austria has made FFP2 masks mandatory on public transport and in shops as well as places where social distancing can't be maintained. Failure to do so will result in a $30 fine.

- Moderna says it believes its COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants first found in the UK and South Africa, although it will test a new booster shot aimed at the South Africa variant after concluding the antibody response could be diminished.

- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he was looking at toughening border quarantine rules because of the risk of "vaccine-busting" new coronavirus variants.

- However, Johnson says he's also looking at easing some restrictions before mid-February, according to reports in the UK. 

- France's leading medical adviser says the country is facing a COVID-19 "emergency" and that a third national lockdown is inevitable after more than 18,000 people tested positive for the virus on Sunday.

- Ukraine has reopened schools, restaurants and gyms on Monday, ending a tough lockdown introduced on January 8.

- Conservative MPs have asked the government to lay out a route map for the reopening of schools in the UK amid fears closures could seriously impact the education of children.

- In the Netherlands riot police sprayed anti-lockdown protesters with water canons and tear gas as people flouted the country's new 8 p.m. curfew in Eindhoven on Sunday night.

- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has condemned riots across the country this weekend calling them "criminal violence."

- Lockdown measures in Germany have halted the recovery of Europe's largest economy, a survey showed on Monday.

- UK opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is to self-isolate for seven days after coming into contact with someone who has contracted COVID-19. It's the third time he's been forced to self-isolate.

ACROSS EUROPE

Nawied Jabarkhyl in London

Pressure is growing on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to reopen schools in the UK. 

Most pupils haven't been in classrooms since before Christmas as a result of new lockdown measures and under current plans they won't return until at least February.

Politicians, including some in the governing Conservative Party, say there needs to be more clarity on when children can get back into classrooms, with parents facing added pressures of home-schooling.

Meanwhile, another 32 mass-vaccination centers are set to open in England this week as the country continues ramping up its vaccine efforts. More than 6.3 million people have already received a first dose of the jab.

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Belgium

The variant first discovered in the UK is on course to become the dominant form of COVID-19 in Belgium, with an estimated 25 percent of all new infections linked to the mutation, according to biostatistician Geert Molenberghs. The KU Leuven and University of Hasselt researcher said in an interview with VRT the estimate was based on sampling and that Belgium has gained a bit of time in slowing the spread by not easing restrictions. 

New infections in Belgium have been hovering around 2,050 a day, but the number of hospitalizations has been climbing, by 19 percent in the past week, to 136 per day. To help curb the spread, people are banned from travel without a compelling reason as of this week.

The EU

EU officials will demand answers from AstraZeneca on Monday about why the pharma giant has slashed promised deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to the bloc. Last week, AstraZeneca said supply in the first quarter could be cut by 60 percent to 31 million doses, placing the blame on "reduced yields at a manufacturing site" within its "European supply chain." 

The delay could further exacerbate a slow roll-out of vaccines across the bloc. The AstraZeneca jab is not yet approved for use in Europe, although the drugs regulator is expected to sign off on the shot later this month. 

Brussels has threatened to take legal action against any vaccine company that breaches its contractual obligations.

Mia Alberti in Budapest

In Hungary, 80 percent of health workers have been vaccinated and 9,403 people have received the second dose, Chief Medical Officer Cecilia Muller said on Sunday.

Muller said the vaccination plan in Hungary is well under way and that people over the age of 60 could start being vaccinated soon with the recently acquired vaccines from Russia. Muller says these people would be mostly visited in their homes by a doctor or a vaccination team.

So far, 146,695 people have been vaccinated in Hungary, mainly health workers and nursing home residents.

Ross Cullen in Paris

The French government will be holding crucial meetings this week as pressure grows on ministers to impose a third national lockdown. The head of the national Scientific Council, which advises the French government on the pandemic, says France is at a "virus emergency point." Jean-Francois Delfraissy warns: "We are probably headed towards a new confinement." 

France has been under a nationwide nightly curfew since December 15. More than 26,000 people are currently being treated for COVID-19 in hospital and almost 3,000 people are in intensive care. On Sunday, eight residents and three staff at a care home in Toulouse tested positive for the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK. Of the eight residents, one has now died.

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CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded. Here you can read the essential information about the crisis.

[This article has been updated to correct the number of positive cases recorded in France in the first paragraph.]