Govt to conduct health camp in B'luru to identify journalists affected by COVID-19

Bengaluru: Alarmed over 53 journalists testing positive for COVID-19 in neighboring Maharashtra, the Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to conduct a health check-up camp in the city to identify journalists affected by the virus.

The Information and Public Relations Commissioner S N Siddaramappa wrote to the Commissioner of Health and Public Welfare to conduct a medical checkup camp for the journalists.

Pointing out that there are about 1,000 journalists in the city, Siddaramappa asked the health commissioner to fix the date, time and place for the camp. During the regular COVID-19 related briefing on Monday, a reporter had raised the issue of 53 journalists in Maharashtra testing positive for the disease, with Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar.

Kumar on Tuesday wrote to the Chief Minister, requesting that a medical camp be held to identify journalists affected with the virus, after which the latter gave the go-ahead.

In Maharashtra, 53 out of the 171 scribes examined medically were found to have a viral infection. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had collected swab samples of 171 media persons, including electronic and print media journalists, photographers and cameramen at a special camp organized at Azad Maidan here in Mumbai on April 16 and 17 for COVID-19 testing of scribes,. Out of them, 53 tested positive for COVID-19.