Europe ramps up vaccinations as virus haunts Easter holidays

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of people around France are spending the Easter holiday lining up for COVID-19 shots as the government tries to speed up vaccinations amid a new surge of infections. In Lyon, a soccer team opened its stadium as a mass vaccination center and provided 200 volunteers to help medical personnel and firefighters. The team’s president expressed hope that the effort would help create “social cohesion” as France entered a third partial lockdown. But as Europe faced its second Easter Sunday in a row under the cloud of the pandemic, some French cities pushed back against President Emmanuel Macron’s insistence on vaccinating through the long holiday weekend.