Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: At least 53 media persons from Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus, a city civic official said on Monday. These journalists will be kept in isolation and quarantined wards of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The BMC had taken the swab sample of 171 Mumbai biased journalists for COVID-19 tests at a health check-up camp. Out of 171, the 53 journalists swab samples came out positive for coronavirus while rest were negative. Out of the 53 journalists, most of them are photographers, camera persons with television channels and reporters who were on the field since the outbreak of coronavirus.

The BMC officer said that most of the coronavirus positive journalists were asymptomatic. "No journalist is critical. The symptoms in the journalist are very normal but they have to be kept in isolation or quarantined. All journalists are asked whether they want to stay in the at home in isolation or BMC provided quarantined facility centre. We are keeping them in a suburban hotel," said Vishnu Sonawane, president of journalist Association in BMC.

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One of the television journalists said that they have been asking their office to allow them to work from home but office instead of working from field and hospitals where are positive patients are reported. "We demanded the safety kids like mass loss and other equipment but we had given normal three-layer surgery mask, not other facilities. We were exposed to who this coronavirus outbreak very closely. We had no option but to work for the office and continue to do reporting from the field," he said requesting anonymity.

BJP former member of parliament Kirit Somaiya has written a letter to Union Minister Dr Harshvardhan, BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope and TV channels owner asking to take care of these reporters and their families.

NCP leader and member of parliament Supriya Sule had also raised this journalist exposing two vulnerable situations. She had demanded the Rs 50 lakh insurance cover to all journalist who is working during this pandemic situations.

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