Scores of journalists in Mumbai have tested positive for COVID-19 after samples of around 170 people working with news organisations, including reporters, video journalists and drivers, were sent for testing.
So far, around 30 people have tested positive but the number is expected to increase to around 50. Further results from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are awaited.
Journalist Ashok Bagriya tweeted that an entire team of reporters of a TV channel in Mumbai had tested positive. Some reports suggest that many of the people tested were asymptomatic.
The entire team of reporters of a TV channel in Mumbai have tested #COVID positive.
— ashok bagriya (@ashokbagriya10) April 20, 2020
Around 170 journalists have been tested by BMC. (Reporters, Video Journalists, photographers)
Results still coming in.#Dharavi #CoronaInMumbai #Corona
Maharashtra has seen the highest number of coronavirus cases in India so far. As of Monday, the state had over 4480 cases, with 507 recoveries and 223 deaths. Mumbai alone has over 2,700 cases.
Journalists in other places in India too have been affected. Two journalists in Chennai — a 25-year-old print reporter and a 23-year-old journalist part of the editorial team of a Tamil news channel — also recently tested positive for the disease after both showed mild symptoms. A journalist from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh also tested positive for COVID-19 in March.
India is approaching its fourth week of a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Though some states, like Kerala, have seen numbers begin to flatten, cases are continuing to rise in Maharashtra.