New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government has decided to organize a mass COVID vaccination drive for all the media houses (Electronic Media/Digital Media/Print Media) in wake of the rising Coronavirus cases and vaccinate journalists for free. The government said it will organize the vaccination drive at their respective offices and bear the cost. Notably, the decision came hours after Kejriwal chaired a high-level meeting of cabinet ministers to discuss the COVID crisis in Delhi.
During the high-level meeting, Kejriwal instructed officers to ensure that there should be no shortage of beds, now that the oxygen situation is under control. He asked them to assure that no life is lost due to oxygen shortage and that the vaccination drive should be completed in 3 months.
He also instructed the District Magistrates to visit 2-3 vaccination centres every day for inspection purposes. He also asked them to pay a surprise visit to relief camps and old age homes.
Delhi on Friday reported 19,832 new COVID 19 cases. According to the data released by the Health Department, the national capital also registered 19,085 recoveries and 341 deaths in the last 24 hours. With these numbers, the total cases now stand at 12,92,867 with 11,83,093 total recoveries.
The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier announced to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to journalists and their families. The cabinet meeting chaired by CM Yogi Adityanath had also decided that a separate vaccination centre would be set for journalists. Prior to that, several states like Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Odisha and others had declared journalists as frontline warriors and decided to give them priority in their respective vaccination drive.