Covid-19 check-up for Bengaluru scribes from Thursday

On the directive of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, the state health department will organise a two-day medical check-up camp for city journalists, especially those on the frontline covering the coronavirus spread for over a month, from Thursday, an official said on Wednesday.

"The Covid-19 test will be conducted on the journalists at the state-run hospital in the city's eastern suburb on Thursday and Friday," state information Joint Director D.P. Muralidhar told IANS here.

Concerned over the welfare of the media warriors amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Yediyurappa had on Tuesday directed the health department to conduct health check-up of all journalists in this tech city to ensure they are not affected by the virus while covering its developments.

"As the state government is equally concerned about the health of all journalists in print and electronic media involved in Covid-19 coverage, throat swab and nasal swab test will be conducted at the designated hospital from Thursday," said state Health Secretary Jawaid Akhtar in an order.

According to the Bangalore Press Club, the city has about 1,000 journalists, camerapersons, news channels crews, spanning print, electronic, digital and other media platforms in multiple languages, with half of them deploued on Covid-19 beat, as no other event is happening since the pandemic broke out across the state in March.

"Correspondents, camerapersons and crew of news channels will be checked first, followed by print media journalists and photo-journalists in all languages," added Muralidhar.

The decision to make the city scribes take the Covid-19 test was taken following media reports that several journalists in Mumbai and Chennai contracted the infection while covering its outbreak.