TOP HEADLINES
- Malta says it plans to offer foreign visitors up to $238 if they stay at least three days on the island this summer in a bid to boost tourism.
- Police clashed with hundreds of anti-lockdown protestors who tried to break through a barricade in Vienna on Saturday. Officers made multiple arrests and used pepper spray in a bid to push protesters back.
- Moldova is to order 400,000 doses of China's Sinovac vaccine as it seeks to boost its vaccination program following a slow start, the country's health ministry said.
- World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has once again urged countries to share vaccine doses more fairly and not just across their own population, but across the world. Ghebreyesus also stressed that this was "a time for partnership, not patronage."
- Europe's drug regulator the European Medicines Agency is to look into reports of rare blood clots found in four people in the U.S. who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but noted that at present "no clear causal relationship has been established."
- German drug developer Curevac hopes the European Union might give approval for its vaccine in May or June as the jab nears the end of phase-three clinical trials, spokesman Thorsten Schueller said.
- China could be able to produce more than three billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, a national health official, Zheng Zhongwei said.
- Ireland has added the U.S., Canada, Belgium, France and Italy to its list of countries where arrivals will be subject to mandatory hotel quarantine.
- Russia has reported a further 8,704 new infections in the past 24 hours, while fatalities also rose by 402 to bring the nationwide death toll since the start of the pandemic to 102,649.
- The number of virus patients in France's intensive care units is at a near five-month high as the country continues to fight the third wave of the virus. People in ICUs rose by 52 on Friday, bringing the nationwide tally to 5,757.
WATCH BELOW: CGTN's Rahul Pathak provides the latest updates from across Europe
ACROSS EUROPE
Nawied Jabarkhyl in London
Buckingham Palace has asked people across the UK to avoid physically paying their respects to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on Friday at the age of 99. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, mourners are being asked to sign an online book of condolences instead or to donate money to charity.
In a bid to avoid large-scale crowds gathering, the palace says Queen Elizabeth II's husband will neither have a state funeral nor lie in state for the public to pay their respects. Gun salutes were fired on Saturday in major UK cities including London and Cardiff.
Rahul Pathak in Madrid
Some of Spain's regional governments are reporting a sharp rise in vaccine hesitancy toward AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria jab. It follows the announcement earlier this week by the EU's medicines regulator, which said it found a possible link between Vaxzevria and blood clots.
The Madrid government claims 63 percent of people due to get the Vaxzevria jab on Thursday were no-shows. Authorities in Andalucia have also reported a growing lack of confidence in the vaccine, recording a 20 percent rejection rate.
The growing vaccine hesitancy comes as Spain's COVID-19 infection rate continues to rise. The national infection rate, as measured over the past 14 days, has gone up to 174 cases per 100,000 people, edging closer to the 250 "extreme risk" threshold.
Police clashed with hundreds of anti-lockdown protestors who tried to break through a police barricade in Vienna on Saturday. /Reuters
Malta
Malta is planning to offer foreign visitors up to $238 each in a bid to boost tourism this summer. The money is only valid for visitors who stay at least three days on the Mediterranean island and for people who book holidays directly through local hotels, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said.
"The scheme is aimed at putting Malta's hotels in a very competitive position as international tourism restarts," Bartolo added.
Those booking five-star accommodation would receive $119 from Malta's Tourism Authority, which would be matched by the hotel. Those opting for a four-star hotel would receive $178 in all and those booking a three-star hotel will receive a total of $119.
The country attracted more than 2.7 million foreign visitors in 2019, but numbers have fallen by more than 80 percent since March 2020.
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