India hopes to receive up to 500 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine by July to inoculate about 250 million people, health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, as infections in the world’s second-worst affected country continue to surge. India has recorded some 6.55 million infections, with 75,829 in the past 24 hours, while virus-related deaths have totalled 101,782, health ministry data showed. “There is a high-level expert body going into all aspects of vaccines,” Vardhan wrote on Twitter. “Our rough estimate and the target would be to receive and utilise 400 to 500 million doses covering (200 million-250 million) people by July 2021.” Serum Institute of India and private companies have been teaming up with organisations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to US drug developer Novavax in a scramble to secure vaccines for the country of 1.3 billion people. India has set up committees to look into various aspects of the vaccine supply chain, including availability timelines for various vaccines, while obtaining commitments from manufacturers to ensure the maximum doses are available, Vardhan said. He said the federal government was committed to taking all measures to ensure “fair and equitable” distribution of vaccines once they are ready. India was preparing to reopen cinemas and entertainment parks with limited capacity beginning October 15, in an effort to revive the economy. Health experts warn the move has the potential for the virus to spread during the upcoming religious festival and winter season The Solomon Islands has begun contact-tracing after a student who recently returned from the Philippines on a repatriation flight became the first person to test positive for coronavirus in the country. “It pains me to say that we have lost our Covid-19-free status despite our collective effort to prevent the pandemic from entering our country,” Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said on Saturday in a televised address. Sogavare urged the Pacific Island nation, with a population of 600,000, to remain calm and said authorities had commenced contact tracing and other measures, and there was no need for a lockdown. The student, who tested negative three times in the Philippines before boarding the flight carrying 96 passengers, was found positive in a routine test on return to the capital Honiara and was now in isolation. Eighteen other students who tested positive remain in quarantine in Manila. From Australia to the Philippines, are lockdowns working? Since the Solomons’ borders were closed in March, more than 400 students have been stuck in the Philippines, which has been hard hit by the virus. Under pressure from parents, Solomons officials arranged three repatriation flights with the first arriving last Tuesday. Despite confirming its first case of Covid-19, Sogavare said the government would continue working to bring the remaining students home. Only the small and remote island nations and territories of Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are believed to be still free of the virus. Coronavirus-wary animal owners in the Philippines had their pets blessed via a drive-through ceremony on Sunday to mark World Animal Day and the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. From a safe distance inside their owners’ cars, cats, dogs, and birds were sprinkled with holy water by a Catholic priest in Manila, as the nation’s coronavirus cases continued to surge. The Philippines has recorded a total of 322,497 coronavirus infections, the highest tally in Southeast Asia. Organisers and participants said this year’s unusual way of blessing pets for World Animal Day, celebrated worldwide to recognise animal rights and welfare, ensured social distancing. “We have to adapt to the new normal and the pandemic should never stop us from paying tribute to the furry animals that we have,” said Ritchie Pascual, one of the event organisers. For dog-owner Arlene Pedron, having her pet blessed is “very important ... because we really feel like our pet is part of our family”. “We also want the best for his health,” Pedron said, while waiting in line with her two-year-old golden retriever. South Korea reported 64 new cases, the fourth straight day its increase came below 100, possibly reflecting the fewer number of tests conducted during one of the biggest holidays of the year. The figures released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Sunday brought the national caseload to 24,091, including 421 deaths. South Koreans celebrating Chuseok are urged to stay home Thirty-eight of the new cases were reported from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the centre of a viral resurgence since August. Health workers have struggled to track transmissions tied to churches, hospitals, schools and offices. Seventeen of the new cases were linked to international arrivals, mostly from other Asian countries such as the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh. There are concerns that infections could rise in coming weeks because of increased travel during the five-day Chuseok harvest holiday that continues through Sunday. In Australia , the premier of Victoria state called on citizens to “stay the course” after large groups flooded beaches and parks at the weekend in defiance of strict lockdown regulations. Victoria, emerging from a major winter spike in coronavirus cases, relaxed lockdown regulations last weekend but still allowed only five people from up to two households to congregate outside. Many ignored those regulations on Saturday and crowded parks and beaches, causing Premier Daniel Andrews to remind Victorians not to be selfish and maintain social distancing. Victoria reported only 12 new coronavirus cases and one death Sunday, well down on the peaks of winter. In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo defended his record of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, amid criticism that he is putting the economy over public health. The video statement late on Saturday came as the world’s fourth-most populous country’s Covid-19 caseload rose to 299,506. Its 11,055 coronavirus-related death toll is among the highest in Asia. The government’s handling of the pandemic since March has drawn criticism from some public health experts for prioritising economic over public health concerns. Indonesia offers Bali residents free staycations to test Covid-19 protocols “I can say that the Covid handling in Indonesia has not been bad, indeed it has been quite good,” the president said in the statement on his official YouTube account, arguing the country’s total cases and death toll were lower than countries with comparably large populations. The president defended his decision not to impose province or citywide lockdowns in places where cases continue to surge because he said that would have hurt people’s livelihood. “Prioritising health matters does not mean we are sacrificing the economy, because sacrificing the economy is equal to sacrificing the lives of tens of millions of people,” Widodo said. Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg