TOP HEADLINES

· France's health regulators have recommended booster shots be given to all adults, as the country battles with a new wave of infections. 

The period between being fully vaccinated and taking the booster shot, according to France's Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS), should also be shortened from six to five months.

· Speaking on Thursday, France's Health Minister Olivier Veran said at this stage he doesn't foresee imposing either a lockdown or a curfew on the country.

But he added that, starting tomorrow, face masks will be mandatory at events, including Christmas markets.

· The European Medicines Agency, the EU's drug regulator, approved the Pfizer jab for children aged 5 to 11, among whom the virus is now spreading.

· The French government is also considering vaccinating children between 5 and 11, but any decision on this won't be taken before next year.

· Italy has imposed new restrictions on the unvaccinated, sharply limiting their access to public venues. From December 6, unvaccinated people in the country will not be able to enter cinemas, restaurants and sports events, as announced by Prime Minister Mario Draghi late on Wednesday. 

Only those holding the "super green pass" (proof of full vaccination rather than a negative test or proof of recent recovery from the virus) will be able to enter many indoor spaces.

"We are seeing the situation in bordering countries is very serious and we also see that the situation in Italy is gradually but constantly getting worse," Draghi told reporters.

"We want to be very prudent to try to safeguard what Italians have achieved in the last year."

Draghi's government also extended mandatory vaccination to all school staff, police and the military starting from December 15, and will make booster jabs available to anyone aged over 18.

· Deaths in Germany passed the 100,000 mark, as a surge in new cases challenges the country's new three-party government to act to stop the spread of infections.

Greens co-leader Annalena Baerbock said the new government has given itself 10 days to assess the situation and decide on whether further measures are necessary.

New Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he is going to ramp up vaccination efforts, now stalling at 68.1 percent of the German population fully vaccinated. "Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic," he said.

· Some hospitals in the Netherlands are halting chemotherapy treatments and organ transplants to free up space for intensive care beds, as COVID-19-related hospitalizations reach numbers unseen since May.

Regular appointments are being canceled amid the new emergency and the Dutch Hospital Association for Critical Care said it had asked Health Minister Hugo de Jonge to temporarily cancel regular care requiring an overnight stay.

This week, several Dutch COVID-19 patients were transferred to German hospitals.

· The European Commission will recommend on Thursday that vaccination certificates last for nine months after full vaccination, an EU official told Reuters.

· Turkey's domestically developed vaccine, Turkovac, has applied for emergency authorization to Turkey's official Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TITCK).

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said he hoped the shot would be available for use by the end of the year.

So far, Turkey has been administering nearly 120 million doses of China's Sinovac jab and the shot made by Pfizer-BioNTech. 

· South African scientists said they have detected 22 cases of the new B.1.1.529 variant, which was first discovered in Botswana. Experts are still trying to understand the implications of this.

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