New Delhi: The Delhi government will start COVID-19 testing for mediapersons from Wednesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday, after 53 scribes tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Mumbai.
Addressing the media online, the chief minister said his government has set up a centre where free COVID-19 tests will be conducted on mediapersons.
Journalists are also at the frontline in the battle against COVID-19, he added.
"We have set up a centre. All media houses and journalists will be informed about it. Interested mediapersons can undergo tests at the centre from Wednesday morning," Kejriwal said.
Earlier in the day, responding to a tweet in which a person requested the chief minister to make arrangements for mass COVID-19 testing for mediapersons in Delhi on the lines of Mumbai, Kejriwal said, "Sure. We will do that."
Alarmed over 53 journalists testing positive for COVID-19 in neighbouring Maharashtra, the Karnataka government on Tuesday also decided to conduct a health checkup camp for journalists in Bengaluru.
During a special camp organised at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai on April 16 and 17 for COVID-19 testing of scribes, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had collected the swab samples of 171 mediapersons, including electronic and print media journalists, photographers and cameramen.
"Of the 171 mediapersons, 53 tested positive for coronavirus," BMC spokesperson Vijay Khabale said on Monday, adding that most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic at present.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital on Tuesday rose to 2,156, with 75 new cases and no fresh deaths reported, Delhi government authorities said.
Of the total number of 47 deaths reported till date, 25 of the deceased were aged 60 and above, making over 53 per cent of the total death cases, they said.
Twelve of them were aged between 50-59 and 10 were aged less than 50 years, officials said.
By Monday night, the number of cases of the deadly virus in the city stood at 2,081, including 47 deaths.
According to the heath bulletin released by the Delhi Health Department on Tuesday, no fresh deaths have been reported.
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