TOP HEADLINES

- Disneyland Paris, one of Europe's biggest tourist attractions, will from Saturday host a mass vaccination site at its conference centers as France looks to speed up its inoculation drive.

- For the first time in 10 months, Israel has recorded no new daily coronavirus deaths. More than 53 percent of Israel's nine million population have received two doses of a vaccine, according to the county's health ministry.

- The European Commission is set to secure the world's biggest vaccine supply deal within days, acquiring up to 1.8 billion doses of Pfizer's jab for the coming years. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has said the bloc will have enough stocks to immunize 70 percent of adults by the end of July.

- With India desperate for oxygen supplies as its healthcare system buckles under a rising wave of COVID-19, the defense ministry is airlifting 23 mobile oxygen generation plants from Germany and France's Air Liquide SA has diverted supplies from its industrial clients to India's hospitals.

- Women with coronavirus during pregnancy are over 50 percent more likely to experience complications compared to pregnant women unaffected by COVID-19, according to a new UK study.

- Belgium is still set to reopen cafe and restaurant terraces on May 8 despite health officials warning hospitals would soon be saturated, with 910 people in intensive care and the situation worsening.  

- Germany has brought in new nationwide coronavirus restrictions, including night curfews and school closures, bucking the EU trend of economies opening up by applying a so-called "emergency brake." The decision was pushed through by the federal government, angering many of the country's regional representatives. 

- Restrictions on restaurants, bars and cinemas will be eased in 14 of Italy's 20 regions from Monday, with outdoor service set to recommence in so-called "moderate-risk" yellow zones. 

- Cyprus has announced a two-week partial lockdown that will coincide with its Orthodox Easter holidays. There will be a curfew from 9 p.m. local time and people will need authorization to take a non-work-related trip, only one of which is allowed a day. 

- Germany and Hungary are supporting a proposed EU lawsuit against the drugmaker AstraZeneca over its failure to deliver its promised vaccine supplies, according to two EU diplomats.

- A UK scientist who helped develop AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria vaccine has defended the jab, saying it would have been almost impossible to detect the rare blood clots linked to inoculation – which cause death in about one in a million – while doing studies of 10,000 to 20,000 people.

- Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccinations can restart in the U.S., the country's leading health regulators have announced, after the shots' roll-out was paused due to concerns over rare cases of blood clotting.

AROUND EUROPE

Iolo ap Dafydd in London

Normality is returning to Britain as more than 33 million people have now received at least one coronavirus inoculation. In contrast to other European countries, lockdown easing is gathering pace in England, Wales, Scotland and – at a slower pace – in Northern Ireland.

Pub-goers in England no longer need to order a substantial meal to accompany their pint of beer or glass of wine. Bars reopen in Scotland and Wales from Monday, but Welsh drinkers may have to wait until mid-May before they're allowed at hospitality venues. Partial reopening will start at the end of the month in Northern Ireland.

With fears of a surge in cases related to variants of the virus, especially those first discovered in India and South Africa, medical staff are pressuring politicians on the quality of their safety equipment. 

PPE is once again becoming talking point. A North Wales doctor says his vote in the forthcoming local elections will depend on what parties promise on the quality of face masks being given to healthcare workers. Medics are pushing for higher quality FFP3 masks, which include a filter.

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Rahul Pathak in Madrid

Spain has started allocating $2.5 billion of its coronavirus recovery program to the country's 17 autonomous regions. That amounts to nearly 8 percent of the $31.4 billion it's expected to receive in EU funds this year.

Local media reports say that if Spain accelerates the roll-out of ambitious structural reforms, it could receive the first of two or three instalments of a total of $169 billion from the EU recovery fund by the end of the year.

Over the next three years, half the funds will be allocated in the form of grants, while the rest will be paid in loans.

Germany

Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging Germans to follow new tighter coronavirus restrictions, saying the country's so-called "emergency brake" was needed to break a third wave of infections.

Germany's parliament voted to give the federal government more powers to the pandemic earlier this week. The legislation was drawn up after some of the 16 federal states refused to implement tougher measures.

"This is something new in our fight against the pandemic. And I am convinced that it's urgently needed," Merkel said in her weekly video podcast. "It serves the goal of first slowing down the third wave of the pandemic, then stopping it and finally reversing it."

As the country struggling with the more contagious B117 variant of the virus, the chancellor promised that if the number of infections went down, systematic testing would allow for a controlled and sustainable loosening of restrictions.

The new law enables the government to impose curfews where cases rise over 100 per 100,000 residents for three days in a row. The rules include stricter limits to private gatherings, sport and shop openings.

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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.