Spain's tourism hopes, Germany's Sputnik V plans: COVID-19 bulletin

TOP HEADLINES

• Spain is "desperate to welcome" UK tourists this summer, Tourism Minister Fernando Valdes has said. "I think we will be ready here in Spain. We also think that the vaccination scheme in the UK is going pretty well, so hopefully we'll be seeing this summer the restart of holidays," he added.

• Germany says it wants to buy up to 30 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V jab in June, July and August as long as Europe's drugs regulator gives the shot the all-clear, Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer has said.

• The European Commission has said it is considering all options to ensure AstraZeneca meets its vaccine delivery commitments with the EU. The statement comes after news organization Politico said the Commission was working on legal proceedings against the drugmaker after it cut the number of shots delivered to the bloc.

• Hungary is hopeful it can reopen restaurant dining on terraces and shorten a nighttime curfew from Saturday amid a slowdown in new infections, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, has said.

• Greece will begin inoculating people with the Johnson Johnson jab on May 5, after Europe's drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, backed its use.

• Spain will offer between 5 percent and 10 percent of its vaccine shots to Latin American and Caribbean countries this year , in a bid to help them speed up their vaccination programs, Prime MinisterPedro Sanchezsaid.

• **Surge testing is under way in the city of Birmingham, UK, **following the discovery of a case of the variant first detected in South Africa.

• A police officer helping with Japan's Olympic torch relay has become the first participant in the event to test positive for the virus , organizers said.

• Russia has reported a further 8,996 new cases in the past 24 hours , while fatalities also rose, by 397, bringing the nationwide death toll since the start of the pandemic to 107,103.

The European Commission has said it is considering all options to ensure AstraZeneca meets its vaccine delivery commitments with the EU. /Reuters

ACROSS EUROPE

Nawied Jabarkhyl in London

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing calls for an investigation into text messages he sent to one of the country's richest businessmen saying he could "fix" tax issues.

James Dyson was being asked to help produce ventilators in the UK as the country grappled with the pandemic around a year ago.

The messages have raised concerns about lobbying in British politics, but Downing Street says the need to save lives required unconventional tactics.

Elsewhere, driving tests are resuming in some parts of the UK from Thursday. There's a backlog of around 420,000 tests because of COVID-19.

And the Brit Awards ceremony, which celebrates British music, will take place in front of an audience of 4,000 people next month – another step in getting large crowds back into live events.

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Toni Waterman in Brussels

Belgium's reproduction, or R, rate is back above 1.0, meaning COVID-19 is once again increasing in the community. The number of new infections increased by 1 percent last week compared with the week before, hitting an average of 3,479 cases a day.

Health experts and government officials will meet again on Friday to discuss rules on how to reopen the hospitality sector. Cafes, restaurants and bar terraces are slated to resume operations on May 8.

Some reports have suggested that an 8 p.m. closing time may be enforced, but the sector is pushing to keep terraces open until at least 11 p.m.. All bars and restaurants have been shuttered since October, except for takeaway service.

Spain is 'desperate to welcome' UK tourists this summer, Spain's Tourism Minister Fernando Valdes has admitted. /AP

Ross Cullen in Paris

Prime Minister Jean Castex will hold his weekly COVID-19 news conference at 6 p.m. local time on Thursday. The health secretary and education secretary will join him for the government update.

Castex will outline the issues surrounding the ongoing high case numbers and high number of deaths in France. He will also outline ministers' strategy for easing current restrictions, such as opening certain cultural locations and parts of the hospitality sector from the middle of next month.

France has broken through the mark of 5 million second doses of the coronavirus vaccine and the prime minister is set for his second shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Primary schools are set to reopen on April 26 with reinforced protocols, including classes closing as soon as one pupil tests positive. All other children in the lesson will be considered contact cases.

Penelope Liersch in Budapest

Hungary is nearing 3.5 million coronavirus vaccines, the figure needed to allow outdoor dining to reopen. Currently, just over 3.4 million people have had at least one dose of vaccine.

The number of cases reported in the past day has risen by more than 3,500, a thousand more cases than were recorded on Wednesday. Hospitalizations have dropped by more than 500 for the second day, with more than 7,500 patients still being treated. The number of patients on ventilators has also decreased.

In the past 24 hours, another 214 people have died from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll to more than 26,000.

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