Taxi fleets in Thailand are giving new meaning to the term “rooftop garden,” as they utilize the roofs of cabs idled by the coronavirus crisis to serve as small vegetable plots. Workers from two taxi cooperatives assembled the miniature gardens this week using black plastic garbage bags stretched across bamboo frames. On top, they added soil in which a variety of crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers and string beans, were planted. Read:Egypt team identifies fossil of land-roaming whale species The result looks more like an eye-grabbing art installation than a car park, and that’s partly the point: to draw attention to the plight of taxi drivers and operators who have been badly hit by coronavirus lockdown measures. The Ratchapruk and Bovorn Taxi cooperatives now have just 500 cars left plying Bangkok’s streets, with 2,500 sitting idle at a number of city sites, according to 54-year-old executive Thapakorn Assawalertkul. With the capital’s streets deathly quiet until recently, there’s been too much competition for too few fares, resulting in a fall in drivers’ incomes. Many now can’t afford the daily payments on the vehicles, even after the charge was halved to 300 baht ($9.09), Thapakorn said. So they have walked away, leaving the cars in long, silent rows. Some drivers surrendered their cars and returned to their homes in rural areas when the pandemic first hit last year because they were so scared, he said. More gave up and returned their cars during the second wave. “Some left their cars at places like gas stations and called us to pick the cars up,” he recalled. With new surges of the virus this year, the cooperatives were “completely knocked out,” as thousands of cars were given up by their drivers, he said. Thailand’s new infections have ranged just under 15,000 in recent days after peaking above 23,400 in mid-August. The government hopes the country is easing out of this wave, which has been the deadliest so far, accounting for 97% of Thailand’s total cases and more than 99% of its deaths. In total, Thailand has confirmed 1.4 million cases and over 14,000 deaths. Read:Fossil leaves may reveal climate in last era of dinosaurs The situation has left the taxi companies in financial peril, struggling to repay loans on the purchase of their fleets. Ratchapruk and Bovorn cooperatives owe around 2 billion baht ($60.8 million), Thapakorn said. The government has so far not offered any direct financial support. “If we don’t have help soon, we will be in real trouble,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday. The taxi-top gardens don’t offer an alternative revenue stream. The cooperatives staff, who were asked to take salary cuts, are now taking turns tending the newly-made gardens. “The vegetable garden is both an act of protest and a way to feed my staff during this tough time,” said Thapakorn. “Thailand went through political turmoil for many years, and a great flood in 2011, but business was never this terrible.”

Under order by the Supreme Court, India's government agreed on Thursday to provide more medical oxygen to hospitals in the capital, potentially easing a 2-week-old shortage that worsened the country's exploding coronavirus crisis. Government officials also denied reports that they have been slow in distributing life-saving supplies donated from abroad. The government raised the oxygen supply to 730 tons from 490 tons per day in New Delhi as ordered by the Supreme Court. The court intervened after 12 COVID-19 patients, including a senior doctor, died at New Delhi’s Batra Hospital when it ran out of medical oxygen for 80 minutes last week. On Wednesday night, 11 other COVID-19 patients died when pressure in an oxygen line dropped suddenly at a government medical college hospital in Chengalpet in southern India, possibly because of a faulty valve, The Times of India newspaper reported. Hospital authorities said they repaired the oxygen line last week, but the consumption of oxygen had doubled since then, the newspaper said. The number of new confirmed cases in India on Thursday breached 400,000 for the second time since the devastating surge began last month. The 412,262 new cases pushed the country's official tally to more than 21 million. The Health Ministry also reported 3,980 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 230,168. Experts believe both figures are an undercount. K. Vijay Raghvan, a principal scientific adviser to the government, called the explosion of cases “a very critical time for the country.” Demand for hospital oxygen has increased sevenfold since last month, a government official said, as India struggles to set up large oxygen plants and transport oxygen to where it is needed. India on Tuesday stated ferrying oxygen tankers from Bahrain and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf, officials said. Most hospitals in India don't have their own plants that generate oxygen for patients, As a result, hospitals typically rely on liquid oxygen, which can be stored in cylinders and transported in tank trucks. But amid the virus surge, supplies in hard-hit places such as New Delhi have run critically short. Dr. Himaal Dev, chief of the critical care unit at Apollo Hospital in the southern city of Bengaluru, said COVID-19 patients in ICU wards require at least 10-15 liters of oxygen per minute because of their reduced lung function. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India has enough oxygen but is facing capacity constraints in moving it. Most oxygen is produced in the eastern parts of India while the demand has risen in northern and western parts. The outbreak has been spreading to neighboring countries which share porous borders with India. In Nepal, thousands of people rushed to leave the country ahead of a halt to all international flights because of spiking COVID-19 cases. Nepali citizens leaving to report back for jobs in foreign countries or to visit family members and a few foreign tourists lined up at Kathmandu’s airport before flights ceased at midnight Thursday. Domestic flights in Nepal have been halted since Monday. Nepal’s main cities and towns have been in lockdown since last month as the number of coronavirus cases and deaths continues to surge. Nepal recorded its highest daily infections with 8,659 on Wednesday and 58 deaths, also a record. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the coronavirus situation with top officials on Thursday and told them to ramp up the vaccination drive. The country, with nearly 1.4 billion people, has so far administered 162 million doses but is facing vaccine shortages. The United States, Britain, Germany and several other nations are rushing therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen, along with materials needed to boost domestic production of vaccines to ease pressure on the country's fragile health infrastructure. India’s vaccine production is expected to get a boost with the United States supporting a waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine components from the U.S. that have arrived in India will enable the manufacture of 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, said Daniel B. Smith, the senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. Last month, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, appealed to President Joe Biden to lift the embargo on U.S. export of raw materials, which he said was affecting its production of COVID-19 shots. The government meanwhile described as "totally misleading” Indian media reports that it took seven days to come up with a procedure for distributing urgent medical supplies that started arriving from overseas on April 25. It said in a statement that a mechanism for allocating supplies received by India has been put in place for effective distribution. The Indian Red Cross Society is involved in distributing the supplies from abroad, it said.

The annual development programme (ADP) for 2021-22 fiscal will prioritise the transport, education, health and agriculture sectors, with a view to off-setting the adverse impacts of the coronavirus crisis that have weighed on the economy since March last year. According to the Planning Commission and Planning Ministry sources, the size of the ADP in the upcoming budget is likely to be in the range of Tk 2130 billion- just over a third of what is shaping up to be a Tk 6 trillion finance bill. Of the total ADP, some Tk 1500 billion, or Tk 1.5 trillion, would come from local sources while the remaining Tk 630 billion is expected to come from foreign sources. Some adjustments in the size and source may come when the National Economic Council (NEC) approves the final ADP for the next fiscal. The number of projects to be included in the ADP for 2021-22 is around 1900, including 1480 investment projects. For the 2020-21 fiscal, which expires on June 30,  the government is working with an ADP of  Tk 2051.45 billion, giving the highest priority to the transport sector. Also read: ADP for new fiscal year likely to be cleared Tuesday with tough challenges ahead Of the original ADP, Tk 1346.43 billion was slated to come from local sources while Tk 705.02 billion from the foreign sources. The number of projects in the ADP was 1584 to start with,  including 1456 investment projects, 127 technical assistant projects, and one project from the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund (JDCF). Besides, there were 89 projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations. But the National Economic Council (NEC) in March approved  a revised ADP of Tk 1976.43 billion, downsizing it by some Tk 75 billion.. The entire reduction was down to a cut in the foreign funding, which came down to Tk 630 billion from Tk 705 billion.  

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has identified 29 districts, including Dhaka and Chattogram, with higher rates of Coronavirus transmission. The areas have been dubbed ‘risky places’ considering the high number of Covid-19 cases. Narayanganj, Gazipur, Nilphamari, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Sylhet and Khulna are also on the list of risky districts, according to DGHS. Also read: Proposed partial lockdown in areas with high Covid-19 cases: Health Minister Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, director-general of the health directorate, disclosed the findings after announcing an 18-point directive on behalf of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a virtual press conference in the afternoon. "Considering the level of transmission, the local administration can decide whether lockdown is necessary for any certain area or not,” he said. “But there was no decision on announcing general holiday.”

By the time his parents rushed him to the hospital, 11-year-old Pablo was barely eating and had stopped drinking entirely. Weakened by months of self-privation, his heart had slowed to a crawl and his kidneys were faltering. Medics injected him with fluids and fed him through a tube — first steps toward stitching together yet another child coming apart amid the tumult of the coronavirus crisis.

The Japanese Diet opened Monday with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga vowing to go ahead with preparations to hold the Tokyo Olympics this summer, in the face of growing public opposition amid a surge in COVID-19 infections across the country.

For the first time in over five decades, India will not have a foreign leader as the chief guest at its Republic Day parade.

Health authorities of the country detected 2582 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday after testing 15,204 samples in the last 24 hours.

The traditional Basundia jackfruit haat in Jashore from where thousands of jackfruits go to different districts every season now looks almost deserted for lack of buyers and the blame goes to Covid-19 pandemic and cyclone Amphan.

The SME database will be updated soon to ensure the benefits of the incentive package, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun said Tuesday.