OVERVIEW: Europe and other coronavirus developments

Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus Johnson & Johnson's newly authorized vaccine has started shipping, while a highly transmissible variant of coronavirus first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus has been detected in Britain for the first time. Reuters Staff U.S.

(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson’s newly authorized vaccine has started shipping, while a highly transmissible variant of coronavirus first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus has been detected in Britain for the first time.

* The Czech Republic, battling the world’s worst surge in COVID-19 infections, deployed more police officers and soldiers on Monday to help enforce new lockdown measures that seek to confine people mostly to their home districts.

* The current night curfew enforced in France since Dec. 15 and other restrictive measures, such as the closure of bars, restaurants and museums, to contain the COVID-19 pandemic will be a “minimum” for the next four to six weeks, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

* French health authorities reported the number of people being treated in intensive care units for COVID-19 was up by 52, at 3,544, going above the 3,500 threshold for the first time since Dec. 1.

* A total of 20.3 million people in the UK have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, official data showed.

* Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe the new coronavirus was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said.

* Prime Minister Mario Draghi fired Italy’s special COVID-19 commissioner Domenico Arcuri and replaced him with an army logistics expert, in a signal the government wanted to speed up vaccinations. ...

* The Biden administration downplayed the prospect of sharing coronavirus vaccines with Mexico, saying it is focused first on getting its own population protected against a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans. ...

* Israel is looking to buy 36 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines, three times the number it has already bought, in case booster shots are needed later in the year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. ...

* China will donate 50,000 shots of its Sinopharm vaccine to Lebanon, its ambassador tweeted as the crisis-hit country fights a COVID-19 outbreak that has killed nearly 4,700 people. ...