TOP HEADLINES

- Swedish-British pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca reported $275 million in sales from its COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter. It is the first time the company has disclosed sales figures for the jab, which was developed with Oxford University. The company is selling the vaccine at cost price, roughly $4 a shot. The U.S.'s Pfizer, which is selling its jab for a much higher price, had estimated sales of its COVID-19 vaccine will reach $15 billion in 2021.

- Turkey has granted emergency use authorization to Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the country's official Medicines and Medical Devices Agency said on Friday. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said earlier this week that Turkey had signed a deal for 50 million doses of Sputnik V.

- Several Indian states have run out of COVID-19 vaccines a day before a planned widening of a nationwide inoculation drive, authorities said on Friday, as new infections in the crisis-hit country surged to another daily record.

- Spain is diverging from the European Medicines Agency's authorization by extending the gap between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to 16 weeks for people aged under 60, the government said on Friday, going beyond the 12-week maximum interval approved by European authorities. 

- Sweden said on Friday it would take three weeks longer than expected to offer all adults their first COVID-19 shot after it decided not to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to blood clot concerns. The decision meant there were currently not enough supplies of other vaccines in the country to meet the official mid-August target.

- Three cases of the COVID-19 variant first detected in India, and suspected of being more contagious than others already discovered, have been detected in mainland France, the Ministry of Health announced in a press release late on Thursday. President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said all people in France aged 18 and over will be able to get COVID-19 vaccines from June 15 onwards.

- The UK's health body has discovered two new variants sharing the same "parent lineage" as the variant first identified in India, which is thought to be more contagious and partially attributed to the devastating second epidemic wave in India. The total number of confirmed cases in the UK of the variant first identified in India have reached 400.

- Russia has produced the world's first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for animals, its agricultural regulator said on Friday. The country registered Carnivac-Cov in March after tests showed it generated antibodies against the virus in dogs, cats, foxes and mink. The first batch of 17,000 doses will be supplied to several regions of the country, as several countries express interest in purchasing it.

- The UK said on Friday it would host a summit in 2022 to raise money for vaccine research and development to support an international coalition seeking to speed up the production of shots for future diseases.

- China administered roughly 9.6 million COVID-19 vaccinations on April 29, a daily record, bringing the total number of jabs carried out to 253.46 million, according to data released by the National Health Commission on Friday.

AROUND EUROPE

Penelope Liersch in Budapest

Hungary will reopen large parts of the economy on Saturday to those who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. From Saturday morning, anyone with a vaccine certificate will be able to visit zoos, amusement parks, gyms, pools, theaters, cinemas and can dine indoors.

In a radio interview, Prime Minister Viktor Orban confirmed the next stage of reopening would go ahead, with the country set to record 4 million vaccines on Friday or early Saturday. The vaccination target will mean around 40 percent of the population will have had at least one dose of vaccine.

Generally, the country's COVID-19 numbers have been falling in most categories but Friday's data show increases. Almost 400 more patients have been admitted to hospital compared with the day before and the number of people requiring ventilation has also increased. There was a slight decrease in new infections, but the number of deaths still remains high. Up to 182 people have died from the virus in the past 24 hours, the daily number has been above 180 all week.

Nawied Jabarkhyl in London

People aged 40 and over in England have been invited to book their first COVID-19 vaccine – the latest step in the country's rapid vaccine roll-out.

Across the whole of the UK – which includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – around 34 million people have now been vaccinated, covering almost two-thirds of the adult population.

Elsewhere, a nightclub in the English city of Liverpool is set to welcome 3,000 people each day on Friday and Saturday – part of a government trial looking at reopening the sector. The "COVID-19-secure" event will be held indoors.

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Friday is the soft deadline for EU member states to submit their proposals on how they plan to spend their share of the bloc's flagship $900 billion recovery fund. Brussels is only expecting about a dozen plans to be submitted, with the rest coming in the following weeks.

Among the countries that have put forward plans, including France, Greece, Germany and Portugal, billions of dollars have been earmarked for green and digital initiatives. 

But even as these plans are landing on desks in Brussels, there is one major hurdle that still needs to be cleared before the taps are turned on – each national government needs to ratify a law allowing the Commission to go to the markets and raise the $900 billion. 

Some 10 countries are still left to pass this law. But if they do in the coming weeks, officials expect the first batch of grants to be doled out in July.

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES

CGTN Europe: COVID-19 eradication policies have led to less suffering than mitigation moves – study

CGTN China: China working overtime to produce medical equipment for virus-ravaged India

CGTN Asia-Pacific: COVID-19 devastates India as deaths mount

CGTN Africa: Alarm grows in Africa as it watches India's COVID-19 crisis

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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.

Cover image: /Francisco Seco/AP Photo