Finnish PM announces three-week lockdown from 8 March; Ukraine registered 8,147 cases on Wednesday; EU leaders to debate certificates for people who had Covid jabs
- Tokyo Olympics fans asked to stick to clapping during torch relay
- Pfizer Covid vaccine 94% effective, study of 1.2m people finds
- Covax delivers first doses in ‘momentous occasion’
- Frustration grows in Germany over sluggish vaccine rollout
- See all our coronavirus coverage
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is formally expanding a $3 million (£2.12 million) financial relief fund to help people in the US struggling to make ends meet during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Associated Press reports.
The foundation, which launched earlier this month out of the eight-year-old Black Lives Matter movement, said it plans to make up to 3,000 microgrants of $1,000 each (£706).
So far the Survival Fund’s first recipients have included the families of people killed by police or who died while incarcerated, grassroots community organisers, people who identify as transgender, single parents and formerly incarcerated individuals.
France will bring in new Covid-19 restrictions around its common border with Germany in a bid to contain a surge of coronavirus variants in the Moselle region, Reuters reports.
Cross-border workers, who had exemptions until now, will need to present negative PCR tests to get through if travelling for reasons unrelated to their jobs, France’s European affairs and health ministers said in a joint statement.
Home working in the area will also be reinforced, they said, after France and Germany said earlier this week they were trying to find ways to prevent a closure of their common border.
