Kochi, Jun 2 (PTI) Leading corporate hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare on Wednesday announced a 10-year salary support for the bereaved families of its staff who succumb to COVID-19.

Aster, the largest integrated healthcare provider network in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations and among the largest in India, employs over 2,880 doctors, around 6,300 nurses and 11,000 enabling staff, who have been battling the pandemic in these countries.

Of the total staff, over 5,150 have been infected by the coronavirus and five of them have succumbed to the infection, the company said.

Given this, Aster will now provide monthly basic salary for 10 years to the families of those who have died due to COVID-19, its founder-chairman and managing director Azad Moopen said.

Aster hospitals have served 28,000 COVID-19 patients till date and screened over 16.63 lakh people across the countries in the Middle East and India.

It offers the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary healthcare through is 27 hospitals, 115 clinics and 225 pharmacies.

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