Euobserver.com

Only a tiny proportion of the global population – maybe as few as 2% or 3% – appear to have antibodies in the blood showing they have been infected with Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization, diminishing hopes that herd immunity will ease the exit from lockdown, the Guardian reports. "Easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country," the WHO said.

Over 100 Belgian academics sent a letter to the Belgian government with concerns on a contact-tracing app to fight the coronavirus pandemic. "Whether the app works or not, it is more important to realise that many will not want to use it, for completely legitimate reasons," it says. Academics said an app must be part of a larger set of measures, such as a significant increase in test capacity.

The European Commission, in collaboration with several partners, on Monday launched the EU's Covid-19 data platform to enable the collection and sharing of research data, including genes, protein structures, electron microscopy data and scientific publications. The platform is part of the coordinated research and innovation actions ("ERAvsCORONA") announced earlier this month. This project is set to follow the standards of open science.

Austria has offered 181 accommodation and sanitary containers to alleviate the overcrowding of refugee camps in Greece. "The EU will of course co-finance the delivery costs of these containers to the country," said a European Commission spokesperson. Some 39,000 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are currently stuck on the islands, whose centres are designed for around 8,700.

Madrid added its voice to the debate on how to come up with big enough recovery plan that would help protect the euro and stabilise economies worse-hot by the corona-virus. EU leaders will flesh out ideas on Thursday.

The European Commission vice-president Vera Jourova recognised that the EU's pharmaceutical sector had a 'morbid dependency' on third-country suppliers. But some experts from the pharma field have warned export bans undermine global supply chains.

On 4 March, the European Commission's legal service handed president Ursula von der Leyen an analysis of the Greek government's controversial decision to temporarily freeze asylum applications. The commission will not now release the document.

After more than 22,000 coronavirus-related deaths and over a month of lockdown, Italy's health emergency is taking its toll from the social point of view too. Stress is skyrocketing.

'As a single mother, I am now caring for my severely disabled son alone, 24/7, without any assistance, without rest, with more demand for shopping, cooking, feeding and intensive care.'

The Spanish government has proposed the EU creates a €1.5 trillion recovery fund to offset the economic fallout of the coronavirus, ahead of a videoconference of EU leaders on Thursday where they will discuss financing a recovery. The fund would be financed by debt raised by the commission and backed by the EU budget and the money would be sent in the form of grants, not loans, to countries.

Dozens of cellphone towers and equipment boxes have been set aflame in Britain, apparently by people who believed 5G technology was helping to spread the coronavirus. In the Netherlands, sixteen 5G towers have been set on fire in the last two weeks. Saturday, the first cellphone tower in Belgium was burned in Pelt, near the Dutch border, even though it appeared not have 5G technology on it, De Standaard reports.

Extending the UK's Brexit transition period beyond 31 December could see the UK forced to pay for EU coronavirus bailouts, a Downing Street source has told Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper. "The EU will be increasing their budget, and bringing in all kinds of packages to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis," the source said. "Paying into this new budget ... is clearly not in the national interest".

Europe will need another €500bn to cushion the economic blow of the pandemic on top of €500bn agreed by EU leaders on 9 April, Klaus Regling, the head of the European Stability Mechanism, an EU anti-crisis fund, has said. "For the second phase [of post-pandemic bailouts] we need at least another €500bn from the European institutions, but it could be more," he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Sunday.

Russian lawmakers from both houses of parliament have passed legislation Friday allowing dual Russian citizenship for foreigners, less than two weeks after introducing it, The Moscow Times reports. Their authors expect up to 10 million people, primarily from Russian-speaking populations in the former Soviet republics, to obtain Russian passports as the country tries to fix its demographic crisis.

The pandemic slowdown could cost 59m jobs in the EU, wiping out 25% of all employment, especially in small businesses and among younger workers, US consultancy firm McKinsey said in a report Monday. "Europe must avoid the significant rise in unemployment witnessed during the 2008-9 financial crisis,", when unemployment surged by 27%, the firm said, calling for "swift and forceful action" by European governments.

Interior ministers from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain sent a joint-letter to the European Commission outlining ideas ahead of the upcoming overhaul of the EU-wide asylum system.

Small shops, bicycle stores, car dealerships, and book stores in Germany reopen on Monday, but with the public advised to wear masks. The Czech Republic, Norway, and Poland are also partly relaxing lockdowns from today. But Spain will keep restrictions for now. "These results are still not enough and still fragile ... it is not possible for us to lift the confinement," Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said on Saturday.

Numbers appear precise, but can also be unintentionally misleading when it comes to the pandemic, as experts warned that worldwide data is difficult to compare.

As president of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna and of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, I have witnessed firsthand the efforts and sacrifices of our doctors, nurses, police officers, waste collectors, civil servants, volunteers and countless others.

EU leaders will again try to hammer out a compromise on how to fund an economic recovery after the deepest crisis since the Second World War - but divisions are still running deep. MEPs meanwhile will quiz various commissioners, online.