TOP HEADLINES

• Spain has received another 400,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 52,000 does of the Moderna jab, its health ministry has announced. These shots will be administered this week. The country will receive a combined total of 2.3 million doses of the jabs in February.

• Meanwhile, the Madrid region will begin easing its coronavirus restrictions this week, even as the rest of Spain ramps up measures. From Friday, groups of up to six people will be allowed to gather on outdoor restaurant terraces.

• The UK has reported a further 18,607 coronavirus cases, the lowest daily total of new infections since December 15. There were a further 406 fatalities, taking the toll to 106,564.

• Primary schools in the Netherlands will reopen from next Monday, the Dutch government has announced. New infections dropped to 3,714 on Sunday, the lowest level in three months, despite the UK variant now representing half of infections in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch health minister, Hugo de Jonge.

• Denmark, under a tough lockdown since December, will also reopen schools for the youngest children from next week. Grades one to four will be allowed back next Monday.

• Portugal reported nearly half of its total coronavirus death toll during January. Last month, a total of 5,576 people died from the virus, representing 44.7 percent of all 12,482 fatalities since the start of the pandemic.

• BioNTech and Pfizer will ramp up their vaccine deliveries to the European Union from next week after improvements in production capabilities. They have also pledged to send up to 75 million further doses to the bloc in the spring.

• Germany should consider using Russian and Chinese vaccines to boost inoculation levels, regional leaders in Bavaria and Brandenburg have suggested in a sign of how much pressure the country's political leaders are under amid a stalling vaccine roll-out.

• AstraZeneca will increase its vaccine deliveries to the European Union by 30 percent, as the bloc seeks to claw back time lost rolling out the jabs. Deliveries will begin from next week after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reached an agreement that factories in both regions would deliver doses to each region.

• The number of coronavirus patients in French hospitals has hit a near nine-week high – 27,613 cases are being treated, 3,158 of them in intensive care, a level last seen on December 1. There were 195 further hospital deaths in the past 24 hours, but France has ruled out a new lockdown

• France has administered only a few thousand more vaccines in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 1.485 million COVID-19 shots delivered in its faltering roll-out program, which has been bogged down by bureaucracy and supply shortages.

• Official National Health Service figures are expected to confirm the UK has offered a coronavirus vaccine to every "older" care home resident across England. 

• The UK government has ordered an extra 40 million doses of the Valneva COVID-19 vaccine, on top of the 100 million already placed and earmarked for delivery in 2022. The vaccine is still in clinical trials, with early-stage phase 1 and 2 results expected in three months.

• Police in Brussels say they detained more than 200 people on Sunday in an attempt to prevent two banned anti-lockdown demonstrations against measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

ACROSS EUROPE

Ryan Thompson in Frankfurt

Monday marks the start of "10 tough weeks with a shortage of vaccines," according to Germany's Health Minister Jens Spahn. Appointments are being canceled en masse across the country and the government is holding emergency meetings with state leaders and pharmaceutical companies in Berlin.

Many vaccination clinics have been unable to deliver as many shots as promised due to an already unstable supply of doses. One vaccination center in Wiesbaden, outside Frankfurt, reported inoculating only 288 people, despite having the capacity to see 1,500 patients each day.

It's not clear what may come out of these discussions, as deals with vaccine makers are supposed to be negotiated at the European level. However, it looks like Germany is not taking any chances in case booster shots are needed to fight the coronavirus in 2022. Reuters reported this weekend that enough vaccines have been ordered by Germany for delivery early next year, just in case.

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Ross Cullen in Paris

A "Day of Civil Disobedience" was planned by some restaurant and bar owners for Monday in opposition to coronavirus restrictions but the threat of financial penalties from the country's finance minister squashed the action.  

On Monday morning, Bruno Le Maire said establishments that do open will be fined and will lose their access to financial support for a month. Repeat offenders will lose access to the funds permanently.

Prime Minister Jean Castex "very strongly urged" people to respect the current restrictions. All cafes, bars and restaurants, theaters, cinemas and gyms have been closed since October 2020 and a nationwide 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew is in place.

Le Maire said he knows the lockdown of restaurants has been "extremely tough, both morally and economically, but that does not excuse breaking health protocols and opening up."

Iolo ap Dafydd in London

As the lockdown continues across Britain, COVID-19 vaccines have been offered to every eligible care home in England. Official figures are expected to confirm on Monday what Prime Minister Boris Johnson says is a "crucial milestone."

It's claimed that more than 300,000 residents in more than 10,000 care homes have received their first does of a vaccine. It's seen as crucial because a third of all the lives lost to the pandemic in the UK have been elderly people in care homes. The situation is also improving in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

During the weekend, the National Health Service confirmed a new record for vaccinations given in a single day. More than 600,000 coronavirus vaccines were administered on Saturday.

Also on the weekend, Captain Tom Moore was admitted to hospital with the coronavirus. His family have confirmed he's being treated in Bedford Hospital for breathing difficulties. Last year, Moore, 100, raised more than $45 million for the UK's health service.

Stefan de Vries in Amsterdam

Now coronavirus infections are decreasing steadily, the Dutch government sees possibilities to loosen the current lockdown measures. The priority is reopening primary schools next week. The current 9 p.m. curfew will also end on February 10, as planned. Prime Minister Mark Rutte will announce more details on Tuesday night.

Health Minister Hugo de Jonge promised to clear the Dutch vaccination program's backlog within a month. With just 247 vaccinations per 1 million inhabitants per day, the Netherlands is currently the European Union's slowest country.

On Sunday, the Dutch health authorities recorded 3,714 new cases, significantly fewer than the daily average of 4,270 of the past seven days. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals also decreased by 1 percent.

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