In this Oct 22, 2020 photo, pedestrians cross the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. (MILAN JAROS / BLOOMBERG)

LONDON / BUENOS AIRES / BOGOTA / MILAN / GABORONE / RIO DE JANEIRO / SANTIAGO / QUITO / ADDIS ABABA / PARIS / DUBLIN / ROME / SAN FRANCISCO / CARACAS - Johnson & Johnson on Monday began delivering its COVID-19 single-dose vaccine to EU countries, European Union officials and the company said. 

The company had initially planned to start its deliveries at the beginning of April, but delayed the rollout due to production issues. "The first doses are leaving warehouses for member states today," a European Commission spokesman told a news conference on Monday. 

"Johnson & Johnson begins vaccine shipments to the EU today. Very good news," said Peter Liese, an EU lawmaker from the same party as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The US company has committed to delivering 55 million doses to the EU by the end of June and another 120 million in the third quarter, EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton said this month. 

"Most recently, it was unclear whether that promise would be kept. However, 50 million doses are certain" for the second quarter, Liese said, noting he received this information from the company and from the European Commission, which coordinates talks with vaccine makers. 

A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson confirmed that it began deliveries on Monday to EU countries, Norway and Iceland, but declined to comment on supplies for April and the second quarter. It said it aimed to deliver 200 million doses in 2021 to the EU, Norway and Iceland.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, which leads the globe in overall deaths per capita from the virus, scrapped a night-time curfew and a ban on travel between counties on Monday. In-class learning resumed in the lower grades of primary schools, but most restaurants, stores and cultural venues stay closed. The pandemic has killed almost 28,000 of the country’s 10.7 million people.

Czech schools, libraries, zoos and some stores reopened on Monday after months of coronavirus closures in one of the world's worst-hit countries. 

A six-month state of emergency expired at midnight, lifting restrictions on movement including a night-time curfew and a ban on non-essential travel among districts.

Bulgaria 

Bulgaria is allowing a limited numbers of guests to return to indoor eateries, pubs, theaters, cinemas and concert halls.

Slovenia 

Slovenia reopened most services, stores, kindergartens and schools after an 11-day lockdown, but “we are not out of the woods yet,” Health Minister Janez Poklukar said. A curfew that had been in place since October also ended on Monday, while limits on domestic travel remain in place.

Lithuania 

Lithuania removed restrictions on movements within the country last week, but the government scrapped an earlier plan to reopen shopping malls on Monday as the spread of the British coronavirus strain accelerated.

Romania 

Romania isn’t planning any easing before June 1. The numbers of daily infections have stabilized at around 5,000 to 6,000 last week, but hospitals are seeing a record number of patients in serious conditions.

ALSO READ: France extends gap between vaccine shots to ramp-up rollout

WHO

Confusion and complacency in addressing COVID-19 means the pandemic is a long way from being over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday. 

"We too want to see societies and economies reopening, and travel and trade resuming," he told a news briefing. 

"But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it’s totally avoidable" "The #COVID19 pandemic is a long way from over. But we have many reasons for optimism. 

The decline in cases and deaths during the first two months of the year shows that this virus and its variants can be stopped, he added, saying transmission was being driven by "confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures."

Asthma drug

Treating COVID-19 patients at home with a commonly-used inhaled asthma drug called budesonide can speed up their recovery, according to UK trial results on Monday which doctors said could change the way the disease is treated around the world. 

Researchers behind the trial - known as PRINCIPLE - said the findings were only an interim analysis at this stage, but could soon lead doctors to prescribe budesonide inhalers to patients infected with COVID-19 but not sick enough to be hospitalised. 

"For the first time we have high-quality evidence of an effective treatment that can be rolled out across the community for people who are at most risk of developing more severe illness from COVID-19," said Richard Hobbs, a professor at Britain's Oxford University who co-led the trial.

AstraZeneca 

AstraZeneca had a positive meeting with the European Commission last week, the Anglo-Swedish company said after an Italian newspaper said the group had not replied to an EU letter of complaint over COVID-19 vaccines within a 20-day deadline.

European Union member states and the pharmaceutical company are at odds over the delivery of shots after the group shipped less than indicated to the EU than in the initial agreement.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera said on Sunday AstraZeneca had yet to react to a letter sent by the Commission on March 19 to complain about low-contract supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.

“We can confirm we have responded to the Commission within the required time-frame of the dispute resolution mechanism, and that our team had a very collaborative meeting with the Commission last week,” AstraZeneca’s Director of Global Media Relations Matthew Kent said in an emailed message.

Earlier on Sunday a spokesman for the European Commission confirmed that Brussels on March 19 had written to AstraZeneca, calling it “a notice for dispute settlement”, adding this was a first step to engage in an dialogue to resolve the issue.

Regeneron 

Regeneron is pursuing US approval for its COVID-19 monoclonal antibody cocktail as a preventative treatment after it helped cut the risk of symptomatic infections in households where someone else is ill, the US drugmaker said on Monday. 

REGEN-COV, a combination of casirivimab and imdevimab, protected household contacts from exposure to SARS-CoV-2, with 72% protection against symptomatic infections in the first week, and 93% after that, according to trial data released by the company.

Argentina

Argentina registered 15,262 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the national tally to 2,532,562, according to the country's ministry of health.

The ministry also reported 132 more deaths from the disease, taking the nationwide death toll to 57,779.

Botswana

Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness said on Sunday that it was investigating two deaths that occurred following vaccination with the Covishield vaccine.

The cause of the death of two elderly people from separate districts and its relationship with the vaccine were under the immediate investigation of the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority, the ministry said in a press release.

Botswana’s health ministry asked the country’s health regulator to probe two deaths of people who had recently taken a COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India Ltd. on behalf of AstraZeneca Plc. The regulator has been tasked with finding out if the deaths are linked to taking the vaccine, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

A resident from the Moju river community, east of Para state, Brazil, holds up a vaccine vial after he was vaccinated by visiting health workers dispatched to administer vaccinations in Remote areas on April 8, 2021. (JOAO PAULO GUIMARAES / AFP)

Brazil

Brazil on Sunday recorded 1,803 new COVID-19 deaths, as a large study found that a Chinese vaccine that has become the linchpin in the country’s vaccination campaign is 50.7 percent effective against the infectious new homegrown variant known as P1.

Brazil, which has in recent weeks become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, saw over 37,000 new cases, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. With over 353,000 deaths, Latin America’s biggest country has the second highest coronavirus death toll in the world, after the United States.

The outbreak has recently reached its most severe phase due to a lack of federal restrictions, a patchy vaccine rollout and the P1 variant.

Sao Paulo’s Butantan biomedical institute, which tested and is now producing the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, said on Sunday a study it conducted found the shot had an efficacy rate of 50.7 percent against the P1 variant, and a less widespread strain known as P2.

Chile

The Chilean Ministry of Health reported 7,945 new cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Sunday and 133 more deaths.

According to the ministry, the number of accumulated cases has risen to 1,076,499, with 45,792 patients in the active stage of the disease, while the death toll has risen to 24,346.

Colombia

A new batch of vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac arrived at the El Dorado airport here in Colombian capital on Sunday to help keep the country's National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19 on track.

The Sinovac doses will be used to continue vaccinating healthcare workers and people aged above 70 in the country.

The Colombian government, which plans to vaccinate more than 35 million people in 2021, announced a total of 3,041,349 doses had been applied as of this weekend.

Danmark

A one-day "stress test" of 100,000 vaccinations against COVID-19, the largest of its kind in Denmark, is being conducted in vaccination sites throughout the country on Monday, according to the Danish Health Authority.

"We must ensure that we are ready to roll out the vaccines on a large scale -- that the vaccination sites have the capacity to vaccinate 100,000 in one day, and that the logistics and IT system can cope with the pressure. We test the systems at a total of 68 vaccination sites across the country," Steen Dalsgaard Jespersen, head of Unit at the Danish Health Authority, said in a press release.

Ecuador

The Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health reported 1,940 new cases and 14 more deaths from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), bringing the total cases to 346,817 and the death toll to 12,370.

Another 4,923 deaths are considered to be COVID-19 related, but not verified, according to the ministry.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia registered 1,741 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide COVID-19 total to 228,996 as of Sunday evening, the country's ministry of health said.

Meanwhile, 28 new COVID-19 related deaths were reported across the country, bringing the national total to 3,174, said the ministry.

The East African country reported 1,595 more recoveries, taking the national count to 170,633.

France

France will extend the interval between the two doses of mRNA coronavirus vaccine by two more weeks to quickly inoculate more people amid surging infections and saturated hospitals, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Sunday.

"As of April 14, for all first injections, we will be offering a vaccine booster at 42 days instead of the current 28. This will allow us to vaccinate faster without reducing protection," Veran told the weekly newspaper Journal de Dimanche.

"Prolonging the gap between shots of mRNA anti-COVID vaccines should help us to save 1.8 million injections in the second half of May," he said.

Starting from Monday, the AstraZeneca vaccine, which uses traditional virus-based technology, would be proposed to all over-55s without comorbidity; and shots of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, both mRNA vaccines, would be available to all people older than 60 from April 16, according to the minister.

In a further move to ramp up vaccination rollout, France, on Monday, would receive 200,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a week earlier than the schedule, Veran added.

In this March 25, 2021 photo, health workers prepare people for a swab test at a walk-in portable testing center for COVID-19 operated by the ambulance service in Dublin, Ireland, as the country struggles to reduce the spread of coronavirus. (PAUL FAITH / AFP)

Germany

German companies will be obliged to offer staff regular COVID-19 self-testing kits at least once a week, according to a draft amendment to occupational health and safety regulations seen by Reuters on Monday.

The amendment will be submitted to the German cabinet on Tuesday where ministers are expected to agree on unified measures to impose restrictions in a bid to contain a third wave of the pandemic.

Ireland

Both the daily COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in Ireland have dropped to multiple-month-low levels, said a senior public health official here on Sunday.

Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer of the Irish Department of Health, said that as of midnight Saturday Ireland reported 303 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the lowest number of daily cases reported since mid-December.

Itlay

A series of new rules and the supply of new doses will boost Italy’s vaccination campaign, allowing the government to lift restrictions on businesses and citizens starting from May, the health minister said in an interview published on Monday.

“In May the conditions could exist to apply less restrictive measures, similar to those for the yellow (low-risk) areas ... We need to be highly cautious and prudent, and (the government) needs to do so gradually,” Roberto Speranza told la Repubblica daily.

He said he expected the summer to be “different from the months that we are living now ... if we will vaccinate the majority of the population this summer we can allow ourselves more freedom”.

Italy has administered over 13 million doses and Rome aims to vaccinate at least 80 percent of its population by the end of September.

READ MORE: J&J COVID-19 vaccine under EU review over blood clots

In this April 09, 2021 photo, a man delivers barrels of beer from Brixton Brewery to a bar in Brixton, south London ahead of the easing of coronavirus restrictions to allow pub beer gardens in England to reopen on April 12. (TOLGA AKMEN / AFP)

Russia

Russia confirmed 8,320 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 4,649,710, the official monitoring and response center said Monday. 

The national COVID-19 death toll rose by 277 to 103,263 in the past day, while the number of the country's recoveries grew by 6,656 to 4,272,165. Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported 1,833 new cases, taking its total to 1,050,149.

Spain

Spain will initially prioritise people aged between 70 and 79  for vaccination with coronavirus shots produced by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit, which are due to start arriving this week, its health minister said on Monday. 

Spain will take a first delivery of 300,000 doses of the single-shot vaccine on Wednesday morning, Carolina Darias told reporters at Gran Canaria airport after a visit to the Spanish Canary Islands.

Spanish pharmaceuticals company Rovi will make active ingredients for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, extending an existing agreement to bottle the vaccine using ingredients transported from Switzerland. 

Under the deal announced on Monday - which boosted Rovi shares more than 4% to a near-record high - Madrid-based Rovi will have the capacity to supply active agents for up to 100 million vaccine doses a year from its plant in the southern city of Granada via a new production line.

Sweden

Two-time defending world champion Sweden added a third consecutive world title to its name after it defeated Scotland 10-5 in the final of the world men's curling championship held in Calgary on Sunday. After taking a day off due to positive COVID-19 tests inside the Calgary bubble, the world championship playoff matches resumed on Sunday with players wearing masks. 

Earlier on Sunday, Sweden defeated Switzerland while Scotland edged past the Russian Curling Federation Team. In the final match, Sweden had five points in the ninth end to beat Scotland 10-5 for the gold. In the bronze medal match, Switzerland earned a 6-5 victory over the Russian Curling Federation Team.

Switzerland

Switzerland's executive government on Monday urged voters to back the nation's COVID-19 law, which is being challenged by people who fear it eases approval requirements for vaccines and has shifted too much political power away from parliament. 

With Switzerland's direct democracy, voters go to the polls on June 13 to weigh in on whether the law to help combat the pandemic went too far. The seven-member executive on Monday agreed at a closed-door session to recommend to voters to back the law.

UK

Non-essential shops, hairdressers and pub gardens are reopening Monday in England as the COVID-19 lockdown further eased.

 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the latest progress in the country's tackling of the pandemic but warned that risks remain.

England’s shops, hairdressers, gyms and pub gardens will reopen on Monday in what Prime Minister Boris Johnson said was a “major step” towards freedom from the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been closed since early January when England entered a third lockdown to stem surging infections driven by the “Kent” variant of the virus.

A vaccination campaign that has delivered a first shot to well over half of adults and lockdown measures have cut deaths by more than 95% and cases by over 90 percent from the January peak.

Sunday’s seven deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID test is the lowest daily death toll by this measure since Sept 14.

That progress would allow a staged easing of lockdown to proceed, Johnson said earlier this month, adding that he was looking forward to a pint in a pub garden.

Another 1,730 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,369,775, according to official figures released Sunday.

The country also reported another seven coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,087. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

Ireland's National Immunisation Advisory Committee is expected to recommend that AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine be restricted for use for people over the age of 60, national broadcaster RTE reported on Monday. 

The expert group met to discuss the issue on Monday and RTE said it was due to sign off on the issue shortly. A formal announcement is expected later, it added.

US

Eli Lilly & Co. said US health officials canceled a deal for doses of its single antibody drug for COVID -19 to focus on the drugmaker’s combination treatment.

Health officials in three states have restricted use of Lilly’s single antibody because of possible reduced effectiveness against a new variant circulating in California. Dual antibody doses -- including a combination antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. -- are considered less likely to encounter resistance from new viral strains.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in California, the most populous state in the United States, surpassed 3.6 million, showed data released by the state health authorities on Sunday.

The California Department of Public Health reported 4,954 new COVID-19 infections and 105 related deaths in a daily release, pushing its cumulative cases up to 3,600,178 and the death toll to 59,218, respectively.

The state, home to around 40 million residents, has the nation's top case count and highest death toll so far.

Venezuela

Venezuela has secured the funds to fully pay for coronavirus vaccines via the COVAX system, President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, a day after a surprise announcement that the country had paid more than half the amount due.

Maduro’s government has for months said US sanctions block it from paying the US$120 million needed to obtain COVID-19 vaccines, but on Saturday said it had transferred US$64 million to the Switzerland-based GAVI Vaccine Alliance.