Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Friday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to provide insurance cover for journalists, PTI reported. Her appeal came after a newspaper journalist died of the coronavirus in Agra on Thursday.
“A journalist, who had tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted at the isolation ward of SN Medical College, has died,” Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh said, according to ANI. “He was on ventilator since Wednesday.”
Gandhi offered condolences to the journalist’s family and friends. She said journalists have been doing the important job of providing people information during the Covid-19 outbreak. “Comprehensive financial assistance to [journalist’s] family and an insurance cover for all journalists should be announced by the Uttar Pradesh government,” Gandhi added.
Last month, the Uttar Pradesh government had said that accredited journalists will be tested for coronavirus at Lok Bhavan in Lucknow. Some other states, including Karnataka and Delhi, have tested journalists for Covid-19.
On April 21, 26 employees of a Tamil news channel based in Chennai tested positive for the coronavirus. The previous day, over 50 journalists from Mumbai were found infected, after samples of over 170 journalists were tested.
India has, as of Friday morning, reported 56,342 cases of the coronavirus, including 1,886 deaths, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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