TOP HEADLINES

• Germany is ordering vaccines for 2022 in case regular or booster doses are needed to keep the population immune against variants of COVID-19, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Saturday,

• UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab says the EU has reassured him they don't want to disrupt supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to the UK after the bloc said it planned to control exports.

• France will impose new border restrictions from Sunday that will see all but essential travel banned from countries outside of the EU.

• The World Health Organization has criticised the EU for restricting exports of vaccines to countries outside of the bloc and says vaccine nationalism will only prolong the pandemic.

• The EU has reversed its decision to temporarily override part of the Brexit agreement by introducing checks on the Irish border for exports of vaccines. But the bloc says it will limit exports of vaccines to other non-EU countries.

• France has decided against imposing a third nationwide lockdown and instead ordered tighter border controls, increased police action against curfew breakers and a greater adherence to working from home. Read more in Across Europe, below

• Some Parisians have turned to taxis as a means of breaking the country's 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, while avoiding police who often catch people flouting the rules on public transport. 

• Johnson & Johnson said its single-dose vaccine was 72 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 in the United States but a lower rate of 66 percent was observed globally in the large trial conducted across three continents and against multiple variants.

• The UK has added United Arab Emirates, Burundi and Rwanda to its travel ban list. Only people with UK or Irish residency will be allowed to travel to the UK from those countries, and they will then have to self-isolate at home.

• Local businesses in the UK have been warned they will face punishments if they attempt to reopen as part of the "Great Re-opening" protest on Saturday.

• Venice Carnival begins this weekend but will take place under COVID-19 restrictions, while most of the events will be live streamed for people to watch online. 

• Austrian police have found 96 foreigners from across Europe at the ski resort of St Anton am Arlberg, in breach of pandemic-related rules on entering the country and the national lockdown.

• In Portugal, ambulances under police escort rushed three intensive-care patients from overstretched Lisbon hospitals to a military base to be airlifted to the island of Madeira.

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ACROSS EUROPE

Ross Cullen in Paris

The French government has ruled out another lockdown for now but imposed even tighter restrictions to go alongside the existing 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. Prime Minister Jean Castex says that a new lockdown would have a "very heavy impact for all of France" but that the new measures "give us the chance of avoiding a third national lockdown." 

France's borders will be closed with non-EU countries except for essential travel from 2300 GMT on Saturday. Anyone coming into France from any country – including EU neighbours – must have proof of a negative PCR test carried no longer than three days before the essential travel. Schools are going to stay open for now but Castex has called on people who can work from home to do so from February 1. 

Shopping centers and non-food stores that are bigger than 20,000 square meters will be closed across France from Sunday, January 31. French police are going to launch further clampdowns on clandestine and illegal openings of restaurants and bars, which should have been closed since October last year.

Germany

On Saturday, Germany will introduce new border controls banning travel from five countries that have been badly affected by new COVID-19 variants. 

People from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa will be denied entry to the country as Germany takes drastic measures to get its own second wave under control. 

There are some exceptions to the measures, with Germans living in these countries allowed to return, as well as passengers in transport responsible for importing goods. 

Germany had wanted the EU to introduce continent wide travel restrictions to reduce international travel to a minimum but in the absence of a bloc-wide agreement it has acted on its own accord.

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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.