On Thursday, Prakash Jadhav, a journalist by profession, died by committing suicide reportedly after failing to acquire Remdesivir injection. Jadhav, who lived in the Sushil Nagar area of Solapur city, was only 35 years of age; he ended his life by cutting his wrist at his residence. On Wednesday, there were four media professionals from Nashik who lost their lives battling against Covid-19–Vinod Shadrul, Sandip Rokde and Asif Tamboli were from the local media, while Shyam Mule was a newspaper distributor.
With media professionals severely hit by Covid-19, Prafful Sarda, an officer on special duty to the Minister of State (R), Government of Maharashtra, and chairman MWAC Dr Raghunath Kuchik, who is also deputy leader of Shiv Sena, wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope And Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan and his team and to Balram Bhargav ICMR, Director General.
Terming media personnel as frontline workers and corona warriors working relentlessly in these challenging, difficult and testing times, Prafful Sarda demanded special vaccination drive for media personnel. “The nation is observing a second wave of Covid-19. Amidst this deadly scare, one unlooked genre is that of journalists and our media personnel who since day one of this pandemic are out working hard, doing their job and risking their lives along with team members (photographers and videographers). During these difficult and testing times, media has played an important role of giving the public the right information since the past one year and in all events including calamity, disaster and the pandemic. While they have been doing their job religiously, many have lost their lives battling the deadly coronavirus and several others have contracted the disease and are struggling to survive. In such a challenging scenario, it’s important that these ‘Corona Warriors’ get vaccinated as soon as possible looking at death toll of these reporters, journalists, camera persons and video Journalists. For their health and safety, it’s strongly recommended that they get vaccinated. Once again, I request you to take up this issue with the authorities concerned that all media personnel, irrespective of their age group, must get vaccination on priority before things go worst,” the letter states.
The Switzerland-based media rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) has noted that India is the fourth most affected country as far as mediapersons’ death on account of Covid-19 is concerned. According to Blaise Lempen, secretary-general of PEC, the global tally of casualties among media persons in the Covid-19 pandemic has reached 1,036 journalists in 73 countries till date.
“The most affected countries include Brazil (170 dead), Peru (138), Mexico (93), India (62), Italy (51), Bangladesh (47), USA (46), Ecuador (45), Colombia (40), United Kingdom (28), Dominican Republic (27), Pakistan (25), Turkey (22), Panama (16), Russia (15), Spain (15), Bolivia (14),” he said.