People wearing face masks walk past ambulances at The Royal London Hospital in London, Britain, on Jan. 26, 2021.Photo: Xinhua

Britain said Sunday that more than 20 million of its people have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while the rest of Europe lagged behind, with the hard-hit Czech Republic turning to Russia's Sputnik V jab as it fights the world's highest infection rate.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the landmark "a huge national achievement" and praised National Health Service staff and others for their "tireless work."

London says it plans to offer a first jab to the whole adult population by the end of July. Only Israel and the United Arab Emirates have vaccinated more people per capita.

But Israel, despite having administered both doses of the Pfizer vaccine to more than a third of its population, is still in its third lockdown, with restrictions easing gradually. 

On Sunday, dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews defied the lockdown to mark the Purim holiday. Some threw stones at police in Jerusalem as tensions persist between authorities and a deeply devout community accused of repeatedly flouting coronavirus restrictions. 

Czech President Milos Zeman meanwhile said he had written to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to request a supply of Sputnik V doses after a slower than expected vaccination rollout, and expects a supply to arrive "in the next few days."

Zeman said he would also welcome China's Sinopharm vaccine in the country that has recorded over 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and more than 20,000 deaths, arguing that "vaccines have no ideology."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Sunday he received the Sinopharm jab days after Hungary became the first EU member to use the vaccine, which has not been approved by EU regulators.

On Saturday, the US authorized Johnson & Johnson's vaccine for emergency use, offering a glimmer of hope though President Joe Biden said the nation's battle was far from over.

Americans "cannot let our guard down now or assume that victory is inevitable," Biden said in a statement.

The US is the worst-affected country with 511,998 deaths at last count, followed by Brazil, Mexico and India.

With the pandemic now having killed more than 2.5 million people worldwide, Europeans continue to live under some of the world's strictest restrictions - and in France they just got tougher.

Two European cities, northern Dunkirk and southern Nice, locked down over the weekends to halt the spread.

"We have to do something as COVID[-19] is getting worse in the region," Charlie Kentish, a British resident taking an early morning walk in Nice, told AFP. He was resigned to spending his weekends playing video games with his teenage children.

Germany declared France's COVID-19-battered Moselle region a high-risk area for virus variants, prompting tougher entry rules for visitors.

AFP