Covid-19: Call to 'drive down' cost of travel coronavirus tests - BBC News
The transport secretary says testing for overseas travel must be affordable amid criticism from the travel sector.
Germany has sparked controversy by launching talks over the Russian vaccine without waiting for coordinated EU action Image caption: Germany has sparked controversy by launching talks over the Russian vaccine without waiting for coordinated EU action

Russia has asked Slovakia to return 200,000 doses of its Sputnik V vaccine which have sat in storage since they were delivered on 1 March. Former Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic got hold of the doses secretly but then lost his job last week over the controversy. Now Slovakia’s drug regulator says the doses are different to those reviewed positively by the Lancet.

Germany has started talks on buying the Sputnik drug, according to Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. The EU’s medical agency EMA hasn’t yet approved the vaccine and Germany’s health minister says purchase will be conditional on its approval.

For the first time in eight days the number of Covid patients in intensive care in France has fallen, by 24 cases, to 5,705. A big surge of infections was reported on Thursday, but that includes figures from several days. Meanwhile, France has recorded its10 millionth Covid vaccination and a record 437,000 were inoculated yesterday alone. Germany’s case numbers have risen above 25,000 in the past 24 hours.

The Netherlands and Portugal have joined several other countries in limiting the Oxford-AstraZeneca drug to over-60s after the EMA advised of a possible causal link with very rare blood clots. The agency is clear that the benefits outweigh the risks. Meanwhile France’s health minister says anyone under 55 who has already had the first AZ dose will be offered another vaccine for the second.

Iceland is revising a new rule requiring anyone arriving from a high-risk country to stay in a special quarantine hotel for five days or submit a second negative test. The courts have ruled that the mandatory hotel stay is illegal. The health minister says travellers won’t have to pay for the hotel and will be allowed outdoors.