As outbreak worsens, Indonesian airline offers vaccines to tourists

The Indonesian airline Garuda started administering free coronavirus vaccinations to holidaymakers and travellers on Wednesday, part of efforts to reduce the impact of the virus in one of Asia’s worst-affected countries. About 20 passengers took advantage of the free shots on the opening day of the programme on Wednesday at Soekarno-Hatta International airport, which has the capacity to vaccinate 200 domestic travellers per day. “This vaccine gives me confidence but still, we have to obey health protocol because we’re not 100% immune. But at least it gives a sense of calm,” said Cecep Taufiqurohman, 32, after receiving his vaccine. Garuda is offering the Sinovac vaccine to help expedite a national immunisation programme that had a slow takeoff, with only 13m of the country’s more than 270m people fully vaccinated since January. Indonesia has reported record new infections in two of the past three days, and authorities are considering emergency restrictions to arrest the spread.<br/>