TOP HEADLINES

• The European Commission said AstraZeneca "did not even try to respect the contract" in a Belgian court over vaccine delivery shortfalls. The pharmaceutical giant says the lawsuit is "unfounded." AstraZeneca's lawyer said the vaccine contract was complex, and "not for the delivery of shoes or T-shirts."

• Belgium has limited the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to those over the age of 41. The Health Ministry made the provisional decision after a woman died of "severe thrombosis" after taking the vaccine. 

• Serbia and Slovenia have agreed on a deal to mutually recognize each other's COVID-19 vaccination certificates, including those not yet approved by EU regulators such as the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and Russia's Sputnik V.

• The fourth step of Switzerland's easing of restrictions will take place sooner than planned. On Monday, restaurants will be allowed to serve customers inside in groups of four, events hosting up to 300 people can take place outside, and working-from-home requirements will become recommendations. 

• The UK has extended its vaccination program to those aged 30 and above, about a million people in the country. In other news, the former top adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, spent seven hours taking questions from UK lawmakers on the UK government's handling of the early days of the pandemic.

• "The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me, fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this," Cummings told a parliamentary committee in the morning.

• "The government itself and Number 10 [Downing Street] was not operating on a war footing in February in any way shape or form. Lots of people were literally skiing in the middle of February. It wasn't until the last week of February that there was any sense of urgency," he added.

• Research from The Guardian shows at least 77,000 hospital staff contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic in England alone.

• French social media influencers working in the health and science fields said they were contacted by a mysterious agency, allegedly based in the UK, that offered them money to spread negative publicity about the Pfizer vaccine.

• The number of COVID-19 infections in Germany has hit a seven-month low, a drop that experts have attributed to the lockdown measures in spring and vaccination efforts.

• France is setting up extra COVID-19 testing facilities after 50 cases of a "rare variant," a mutation of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in England, were found in Bordeaux. It has also extended quarantine on arrival to those coming from the UK, due to the variant's spread. 

• The U.S. is calling for a new, in-depth investigation into the origins of COVID-19 after the World Health Organization's mission to China earlier this year didn't reach a clear conclusion.

• The variant first identified in India has been found in at least 53 countries, according to a report by the World Health Organization. The actual number, as additional figures from the UN health agency suggests, might be 60 countries.

• More than 100,000 American citizens whose passports had expired after January 1, 2020 and have been stranded abroad during the pandemic, are now allowed to return to the U.S. with their expired passports.

• The United Arab Emirates declared that anyone attending a live event in the country must have proof of vaccination from June 6.

• Finally, vets in Russia have begun vaccinating cats against COVID-19. Tests in March showed a Russia-made vaccine produced antibodies in dogs, cats, foxes and mink. Two cats have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 in Russia.

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ACROSS EUROPE

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Oral arguments begin in a Belgian court in the EU vs AstraZeneca trial over vaccine shortfalls. 

Brussels is asking judges to order the drug maker to deliver tens of millions of missing jabs. AstraZeneca‌ was expected ‌to‌ ‌deliver 300‌ ‌million‌ ‌doses‌ ‌through‌ ‌the‌ ‌first‌ ‌half‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌year, but ‌now‌ ‌says it will ‌ship‌ ‌only‌ ‌about‌ ‌a‌ ‌third‌ ‌of‌ ‌those‌ shots.‌ 

Brussels argues the shortfall was behind Europe's slow vaccine roll-out in the first quarter of the year and that the bloc was entitled to jabs produced in the UK.

In an interview with the Financial Times last week, AstraZeneca's CEO admitted for the first time that the British government was guaranteed priority supplies from those UK factories. The company has said the EU case is without merit. 

The court is expected to rule next month. This is one of two legal proceedings the EU has launched against AstraZeneca. The other case could result in a hefty fine for the vaccine maker. 

Nicole Johnston in London

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's former senior adviser Dominic Cummings faced a grilling by members of parliament about the UK's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cummings left his position last year and has recently been critical of the government.

The questioning lasted more than seven hours. 

Read more here: Cummings sets out UK government's 'tragic errors'

Penelope Liersch in Budapest

A Hungarian biology professor has predicted a fall wave of COVID-19 with a smaller peak than the third wave. 

Zsolt Boldogkoi spoke with a Hungarian news outlet, saying due to the country's high levels of vaccination future waves should be smaller. He also voiced concerns about variants currently circulating in Europe and future mutations that may appear. 

He noted unknown issues around variants – such as who they affect, how severely and if they can be overcome by vaccines – makes it very hard to predict the state of the virus over time. 

Currently Hungary has vaccinated more than 5 million people, or over half its population, with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. 

More than 3 million people have had their second dose of vaccine. Case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths have been steadily dropping in the past couple of months, despite areas of the economy being reopened.

Ross Cullen in Paris

The number of people in hospital in France has fallen below 20,000 and the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care is now below 3,500. 

France's National Academy of Medicine has recommended making coronavirus vaccinations gradually compulsory for certain professions. The government is currently opposed to the idea of obligatory injections. 

More than 23 million people have had at least one COVID-19 vaccination and nearly 10 million have had two doses. 

The academy says children and adolescents must also be vaccinated in order to achieve "sufficient collective immunity to control the epidemic." One of the leading epidemiologists at France's Pasteur Institute says the drop in cases is a "very favorable dynamic" but that "the next three weeks are crucial."

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CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded.