Coronavirus: India offers Covid-19 orphans a financial lifeline; Malaysia to ramp up vaccination drive

The government, in a separate release on Saturday, announced further measures to help families that lost an earning member to Covid-19. The steps include providing a family pension and insurance to the dependents.

India’s tally of infections now stands at 27.9 million, with the death toll has reached 325,972, health ministry data showed.

Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told a virtual news briefing on Sunday that the government will set up another five mega vaccination centres around the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and are considering two in the northern state of Penang and in the southern state of Johor.

The government will also train general practitioners to administer

, he said, noting some vaccines need to be handled and stored differently than usual vaccines.

“Before this, there was no need [to involve the private health care sector] because the vaccine supply was not a lot. As the supply increases, we want to facilitate private clinics, [general practitioner] clinics, private hospitals to roll out the vaccines via our programme, for free,” he said.

The private vaccination centres could administer a total of 40,000 doses a day, he said, adding that the government aims to raise daily vaccinations to 150,000 doses. It has reached 107,000 doses a day this week.

Nearly 6 per cent of the country’s 32 million people have been vaccinated, according to the website of the governmental Special Committee for Ensuring Access to

Supply.

Khairy said the government is also looking to allow drive-through vaccination centres in the country, after guidelines are firmed up.

Malaysia reported 6,999 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the total infections in the country to 565,533. New cases and deaths rose to records on Saturday.

Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl,

’s biggest meat producer, will close its factory in Saraburi province for five days to stem a coronavirus outbreak, according to the provincial government.

The poultry processing plant, some 100 kilometres (63 miles) north of Bangkok, will be shut from Sunday to Thursday, the provincial administration said on its Facebook page late on Saturday. The closure came after the authorities found 245 employees had been infected with the virus.

Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy is battling with a new wave of Covid-19 infections that have spread into prisons, poorer regions and factories. Sri Trang Gloves (Thailand) Pcl and Cal-Comp Electronics (Thailand) Pcl closed some of their production sites this month to stem the spread of coronavirus among employees.

The CP Foods factory has about 5,800 employees. The provincial authority said it set up a field hospital at the factory to treat those infected.

CP Foods will start the disinfection process and tighten health measures at the factory during the closure, the company said in a statement. The company has moved the production of this factory to 18 other poultry processing facilities, it said.

The city has seen a spike in cases related to a religious mission that has recorded at least 125 positive tests, accounting for most of the city’s infections, according to a government statement.

“All events that gather more than 10 people in public are banned citywide, but the city is considering to lower the number of people to just five,” the government said.

Go Vap district, where the Revival Ekklesia Mission is located, will be under full restrictions, and people there will not be allowed to go out unnecessarily, the statement said.

Ho Chi Minh City on Friday shut down shops, restaurants and other services, and suspended religious activities until further notice, the city said in a statement.

People 60 or older were encouraged to stay home, it also said.

Major Japanese airline All Nippon Airways Co. has been offering couples the chance to tie the knot in ceremonies aboard an aircraft it has been forced to ground as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit international travel.

The ervice, launched in late May, will be available until June 13 on the B-777 large passenger jet at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. The company said that seven couples in all will have wedding ceremonies on board and it has finished accepting reservations.

During the on-board ceremony, the airline provides live music, an in-flight announcement by cabin crew to congratulate the newlyweds and celebrate their marriage, and special lighting to project an image of the galaxy on the ceiling of the cabin, ANA said.

ANA is offering the on-board wedding for some 1.56 million yen (US$14,200) and a combination of the ceremony and a party with food in the terminal building for 3 million yen.

The airline said it came up with the unique idea to interest couples who, despite May and June being among the busiest months for marriages, are refraining from holding ceremonies to avoid crowding amid the pandemic. Weddings have also been hit by the ban on serving alcohol at party venues in areas under

’s current virus state of emergency.

On May 23, the first on-board wedding was held on the business-class deck of the ANA aircraft for Toru and Mami Murakami, a Tokyo couple, with a pilot and some flight attendants as well as other invitees celebrating their marriage. Up to 30 people can attend on board.

Before the airline unveiled the new on-board wedding plan, the couple had initially planned only to take photos of themselves as a token of their marriage.

“We immediately decided [to take up the offer] for our love of aircraft and enjoyed a dreamy time,” Toru said. “At one time I thought that we would not be able to hold a wedding ceremony amid the pandemic, but I am satisfied with my wedding,” Mami added.

ANA said it will consider offering the on-board weddings again depending on recovery in demand for international flights.

Meanwhile, in another effort to cushion the damage from the pandemic to its business and increase utilisation of its fleet, ANA has also offered domestic sightseeing flights using its huge A380 double-decker passenger jet, previously flying between Japan and Hawaii.

The flights, with meals served, lasted some three and a half hours.

Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg, Kyodo