France's official Covid-19 death toll rose on Thursday to more than 100,000, making the country of 67 million the eighth nation in the world to reach the mark, news wires reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive her first anti-coronavirus vaccination on Friday, Die Welt newspaper reported. Merkel would receive the AstraZeneca injection, the newspaper wrote without naming a specific source, dpa reported.

Two years after a fire tore through Paris’ most famous cathedral and shocked the world, French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting the building site on Thursday to show that French heritage has not been forgotten despite the coronavirus, AP reported.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez is standing by his intention to let the state of alarm expire on 9 May even as several regions are calling for it to be extended, El Pais reports. For the past six months, the emergency measure has given the country’s regional governments the power to introduce coronavirus restrictions that limit fundamental rights – such as nighttime curfews and perimetral lockdowns – without facing legal challenges in the courts.

Greece plans to lift quarantine restrictions from next week for travelers from the European Union and five other countries who have been vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Czech MPs rejected a proposed bill to reduce dependency on food imports by imposing a quota of locally-produced food to be sold in supermarkets, AP reported. Lawmakers in the lower house had originally approved the controversial requirement in January.

Denmark will become the first country to entirely cease administering AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine following its possible link to very rare cases of blood clots, several Danish media outlets reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. The decision to remove the shot from Denmark’s vaccination scheme,which is expected to be announced later in the day, could delay the country’s vaccine rollout by up to four weeks, based on previous statements by health bodies, Reuters noted.

Romania’s PM Florin Citu announced on Wednesday he has fired Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu after weeks of mounting tensions over how to handle the new coronavirus pandemic, potentially endangering the centre-right coalition government, Reuters reported.

People aged under 60 who have been given a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Germany will receive a different jab for their second dose, federal and regional health ministers agreed. Germany announced on 30 March that it would no longer offer the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged under 60 due to concerns over a possible link to rare cases of blood clots.

Spain will press ahead with its economic recovery plan despite an expected delay to the arrival of European Union support funds, financing initial investments via government borrowing, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.