The Netherlands has brought in a curfew to curb the spread of coronavirus, while French doctors have urged people to avoid talking on public transport.
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From Saturday, people in the Netherlands must be inside between 9pm and 4.30am unless they have a valid reason, or else face a fine of 95 euros ($A150).
The country, which has been in lockdown since mid-December, has also banned flights from Britain, South Africa and South America, where more transmissible coronavirus variants have been identified.
Meanwhile, French doctors have given new advice to slow the spread of coronavirus: stop talking on public transport.
The French Academy of Doctors issued guidance on Friday, saying people should "avoid talking or making phone calls" in subways, buses or anywhere in public where social distancing is not possible.
Face masks have been mandatory since May, but travellers often loosen or remove them to talk on the phone.
Other French experts are urging more dramatic measures, notably a third lockdown.
In the UK, doctors have urged for the gap between the first and second Pfizer vaccine jabs to be cut down from the current 12 weeks.
The British Medical Association urged England's chief medical officer to "urgently review" the policy for the Pfizer vaccine.
Pfizer says its second dose should take place 21 days after the first.
British health experts on Saturday also expressed surprise at comments by Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggesting the mutant virus strain first discovered in Britain could be more deadly.
"There is some evidence, but it is very early evidence. It is small numbers of cases and it is far too early to say this will actually happen," Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, told the BBC.
And in China, life has largely returned to normal in the city of Wuhan on the one-year anniversary of the world's first coronavirus lockdown.
Residents of the city where the virus was first detected were jogging and practising tai chi in a fog-shrouded park beside the Yangtze River on Saturday.
China has reported a slight increase in new cases of COVID-19 with 107 infections, while the world grapples with the spread of the virus' more contagious variants.
Australian Associated Press
