Police opened fire on protesters and seven people were injured in rioting that erupted in downtown Rotterdam around a demonstration against COVID-19 restrictions. The Dutch city's mayor called it "an orgy of violence."

Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told reporters in the early hours of Saturday morning that "on a number of occasions the police felt it necessary to draw their weapons to defend themselves" as rioters ran rampage through the port city's central shopping district, setting fires and throwing rocks and fireworks at officers.

The U.S. government will pay drug maker Pfizer $5.29 billion for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators approve it.

Pfizer asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to authorize the experimental pill, which has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people with coronavirus infections.

Fears of infection. Loneliness. Worries about physical health.

As the coronavirus spread across borders early in the pandemic, calls to global helplines showed a striking similarity in the toll on mental health — from Lebanon to China, Finland to Slovenia.

The World Health Organization says coronavirus deaths in Europe rose 5% in the last week, making it the only region in the world where COVID-19 deaths increased. The U.N. health agency said confirmed cases jumped 6% globally, driven by increases in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

In its weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, WHO said COVID-19 deaths in all regions other than Europe remained stable or declined, and totaled 50,000 worldwide last week. Of the 3.3 million new infections reported, 2.1 million came from Europe.

Through funding from the U.S. Government, UNICEF said it has delivered 97 tons of lifesaving medical supplies valued at over one million U.S. dollars to the Ministry of Public Health, in response to severe shortages of supplies and medicines affecting health facilities across Lebanon.

The humanitarian shipment arrived Tuesday to the Beirut international airport through a UNICEF charter flight, UNICEF said in a press release.

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with a U.N.-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world's population.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it would grant a license for the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool, which would let generic drug companies produce the pill for use in 95 countries, making up about 53% of the world's population.

Italian police on Monday raided anti-vaccine activists alleged to have used an online chat to call for violence, including "hangings" and "shootings," against people supporting Covid-19 restrictions.

Egypt's national research body has said that it will start clinical trials for a domestically made coronavirus vaccine.

The country's acting health minister, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, told reporters at a press conference that it is launching clinical trials of the new vaccine. He said the trial for the vaccine, named 'COVI VAX' will start with tens, then hundreds, and will eventually include thousands of people.

Germany's disease control center is calling for people to cancel or avoid large events and to reduce their contacts as the country's coronavirus infection rate hits the latest in a string of new highs.

The center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Friday that Germany's infection rate climbed to 263.7 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days, up from 249.1 the previous day.

In what it called a world first, Israel on Thursday held a "war game drill" in case of an outbreak of a new lethal variant of Covid-19.