Federal health officials in the US have called for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout to be paused, in light of six cases that saw recipients develop a rare disorder involving blood clots.
All six were women between the ages of 18 and 48. Officials briefed on the decision reportedly told the New York Times that one woman died, and another is in a critical condition in hospital.
The German government has agreed on a controversial law change that gives it the power to pass tougher Covid restrictions.
The adjusted national infections control law, which still needs to be approved by parliament, would allow the federal government to impose curfews from 9pm to 5am, and to close schools and businesses in areas with high infection rates.
Austria's health minister Rudolf Anschober has resigned, saying he's exhausted.
"I've decided to resign from my job... I'm overworked and powered out," he says, adding that his 15 months in the role has felt like 15 years.
He has been off work since last week, and he also took a week off sick last month and checked into a hospital.
Three elderly Covid patients have died in Romania after a malfunction in a mobile intensive care unit’s oxygen supply. The ventilators stopped working because oxygen levels rose too high, officials in Bucharest said.
Belgian prosecutors have launched an investigation into threats made against virologist Marc van Ranst,who fronts Belgium’s anti-Covid campaign. Mr van Ranst says he’s fed up with constant death threats – the latest is allegedly from a dance manager. The virologist has had to have police protection for months.
Ireland has become the latest European country to limit the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca drug to over 60s. Extremely rare blood clots have been linked to the drug but the EU’s medical regulator say the benefits outweigh any risk.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex is expected to tell parliament today that regional elections will take place on two weekends running in the second half of June. The government asked 35,000 local mayors what they thought and most of them agreed they should go ahead.
The authorities in Botswana have stopped vaccination in some regions saying doses allocated to them have been depleted.
The country has so far vaccinated 17,808 people, according to data from the health ministry.
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