TOP STORIES

• Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she would like European countries to require people entering from Britain to go into quarantine, as is the case in Germany, citing the high prevalence of the more infectious Delta variant in the UK. She expressed "regret" the EU has "not reached a common attitude of the member states regarding travel rules."

• The Delta COVID-19 variant could already be responsible for 70 percent of new infections in Europe, and that is likely to rise to 90 percent by August, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. "It is likely that the Delta variant will circulate extensively during the summer, particularly among younger individuals who are not targeted for vaccination," ECDC's statement added. 

• Businesses in France are feeling as optimistic as they ever have, in June reaching a 14-year peak, considerably higher than its pre-pandemic level, the national statistics agency INSEE said on Thursday. For the retail trade sector, the balance of opinion on the general business outlook is at its highest level since the data series began in 1991.

• More than 2 million people in England might have had so-called Long COVID-19. The REACT-2 study, led by Imperial College London, found more than a third of people who have had COVID-19 reported symptoms that lasted at least 12 weeks, with one in 10 reporting severe symptoms, which lasted that long. "Our findings do paint a concerning picture of the longer-term health consequences of COVID-19, which need to be accounted for in policy and planning," said Paul Elliott, from Imperial.

• Portugal's Health Minister Marta Temido admitted the country could have avoided its latest spike in infection numbers if "we … acted differently at certain times." Portugal reported close to 1,500 new cases on Tuesday, the highest daily total since February 20. But Temido did not apologize, saying "it is impossible to rewrite history."

• The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates at 0.1 percent as its monetary policy committee meets. It is the latest central bank to weigh up the dangers of rising inflation and the need to boost the economy to recover from the pandemic. The European Central Bank recently decided to keep its ultra-low savings rate steady, with the general consensus remaining that some inflation is a price worth paying for a rebounding economy. 

• Russia on Thursday reported 20,182 new COVID-19 cases, the most confirmed in a single day since January 24, amid a wave of infections that authorities blame on the Delta variant and the slow progress of the vaccination program. The government coronavirus taskforce also confirmed 568 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours.

• Meanwhile, Russia had vaccinated at least 20 million people out of a population of more than 144 million as of June 18, the head of the consumer health watchdog was cited as saying by Interfax news agency on Thursday.

• UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is due to say whether any new destinations are to be added to England's "green" list for quarantine-free travel amid speculation that restrictions could be eased for Spanish islands such as Ibiza. At the moment, travelers to the UK have to quarantine for 10 days unless they are coming from a handful of countries.

• Drugmaker Moderna says it hopes to be able to deliver the vaccines it has promised to Germany faster than originally planned, Dan Staner, its European head, was quoted as telling the WirtschaftsWoche weekly on Thursday. He hopes the Moderna vaccine will soon be given by German family doctors as well as at vaccination centers. 

• He said Moderna is also planning to offer booster shots in the fall for those who got their first vaccination in January or February. "Our booster vaccine against the Beta variant is currently showing the strongest effect. We expect our multivalent booster vaccine to also protect against the original virus and the variants of concern," Staner said.

• It's the final stages of qualifying for the Wimbledon tennis championships – the tournament proper begins on Monday after a break last year. There will be smaller-than-usual crowds at the famous grass-court contest, but it has been made an official UK "Test Event" so a full 15,000-capacity crowd will pack into Center Court for the men's and women's singles finals in July. The last final, in 2019, was a classic five-set battle between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

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AROUND EUROPE 

Nicole Johnston in London

On Thursday, the British government will announce whether it will make any changes to the green list of countries to which people can travel without having to quarantine on their return. 

Currently, the list is severely restricted and most countries are classified as amber or red, which means either home or hotel quarantine is required. 

The government has indicated it may consider removing quarantine restrictions for people who have had two doses of vaccine. 

Meanwhile, a study looking at symptoms in England has found more than 2 million adults have experienced long-lasting effects or "Long COVID-19." The most common symptoms were loss of taste and/or smell and tiredness.

Toni Waterman in Brussels

More than 60 percent of vaccine doubters in Belgium have had a change of heart and are now inoculated, according to the latest reading of the motivation barometer from UGent, UCLouvain and ULB.

The study said the "refusers, doubters and vaccinated" found personal meetings with health professionals and targeted information to be the "most appropriate strategies for encouraging doubters to vaccinate."

According to the latest government figures on Thursday, 70 percent of adults in Belgium have now received at least one dose of a vaccine. The high take-up rate is helping to drive infections to their lowest levels since August 2020. The number of COVID-19-related deaths has also plummeted with an average of 5.9 deaths a day in the past week.

Ryan Thompson in Frankfurt

On Wednesday we reported that Germany's health authorities are carefully monitoring positive COVID-19 test results for a rise in Delta variant mutations. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is warning the strain, first discovered in India, will take hold in Europe by the end of August. 

New data from the Robert Koch Institute released Wednesday night confirm the amount of cases of the Delta variant has risen to 15 percent. That's up from 6 percent last week. 

The rise is alarming, given that it has more than doubled in one week. However, the number of new coronavirus cases is falling across Germany – 1,008 new infections were reported Thursday, down from 1,330 infections last Thursday.

Ross Cullen in Paris

France's Health Minister Olivier Veran and the Prime Minister Jean Castex travel to the Landes region today. The region near La Rochelle has been impacted by the Delta variant, which accounts for 70 percent of all cases. France is rolling out 8 million self-testing kits to try to control the rise in Delta cases. 

For the first time since mid-October 2020, there are fewer than 10,000 people being treated in hospital.

Despite this, due to the prevalence of the Delta variant, France on Wednesday added another three countries to its red list. Non-essential travel is now banned from Russia, Namibia and the Seychelles.

The Delta variant is also causing concern in the UK, where it now accounts for 90 percent of all cases but France is not adding the UK to the red list for now.

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