‘Allow priority vaccination for journalists’, Editors Guild urges govt

The Editors Guild on Thursday, released a statement urging the Union government to declare journalists as frontline workers and allow them “priority vaccinations” against COVID-19.

“News organisations have been relentlessly covering the pandemic, elections, and other current affairs in an effort to ensure that the flow of news and information to readers continues unabated,” the statement said. “…Therefore, it will only be fair that journalists be given this cover of protection, especially in the face of number of infected rising to astronomical levels.” read the statement.

The guild’s statement comes a day after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government was writing to the centre to treat journalists as frontline workers and get them vaccinated.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in India hit a record daily high with over 2 lakh infections being reported in a day, while the active cases surpassed the 14- lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

With the new cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 1,40,74,564.

A total of 2,00,739 new COVID-19 cases have been registered in a span of 24 hours, while the death toll increased to 1,73,123 with 1,038 daily new fatalities, the highest since October 3, 2020, the data updated at 8 am showed.