Kolkata: Journalists are not considered to be frontline workers, hence they are not among the central government’s priority group for vaccination.
In a praiseworthy initiative, Kolkata Press Club in association with the West Bengal government, on Monday started vaccinating journalists and photojournalists.
A total of 83 newspersons got vaccinated on the opening day.
Doctors and health workers of Nil Ratan Sarkar government hospital are administering the vaccine, with the State health department overseeing the process.
It’s a boon for those who have to go out for the ongoing election coverage. Rallies and road shows featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, CM Mamata Banerjee and numerous cine artists have been drawing massive crowds for the past several weeks.
It’s over the last one or two days that political leaders have woken up and said that they will be cutting down on the number of election rallies as well as the crowds attending them.
The Indian Press Council, Editors’ Guild and Press Club of India have repeatedly demanded that journalists be bracketed under frontline workers.
