Sao Paulo to shut bars and shops as pandemic snowballs; more infectious variants spark new rise in cases in Serbia * Denmark under pressure to drop Israel vaccine cooperation * Dutch Covid test centre hit by suspected bomb attack * German doctors broach ‘taboo’ subject of Covid toll on minority groups * UK unions attack ‘sinister’ plan to force NHS staff to have vaccine * See all our coronavirus coverage 7.00pm GMT 6.49pm GMT GREECE has extended its coronavirus lockdown to 16 March as it reported the highest number of new cases recorded so far in 2021. “We are at the toughest part of this pandemic,” health minister Vassilis Kikilias told reporters as he warned that public health resources in Athens had been under “unbearable pressure” for weeks. “At the rate of new hospitalisations, the health system is stretched beyond its limits in terms of infrastructure and staff,” he said, adding that there was an “important rise” in cases of the more transmissible virus variant first detected in the UK. “The measures aim to reduce mobility...we stay at home, in our own neighbourhoods,” civil protection deputy minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters. Continue reading...