Pune: 53 media persons, including reporters, cameramen and photographers from Mumbai, tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, state health officials said.
The officials said they would be shifting all 53 to COVID-19 Critical Centres (CCC) and keep them under observation.
Health officials have started contact tracing. The cases were discovered after 167 media personnel underwent tests at a special camp organised by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with the Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on April 16 and 17.
“Of the 167 samples of journalists collected for coronavirus testing, 53 tested positive,” confirmed the BMC’s health committee chairman Amey Gole.
Dr Daksha Shah, Deputy Executive Health Officer at BMC, said 171 had undergone corona testing of whom 53 were said to be positive, while the others’ reports are awaited.
“Most of these media personnel are asymptomatic and are low-risk categories. We have asked them to home quarantine and will shortly be moving them to CCC centres,” she said.
BMC officials said all those who have tested positive were on the field, covering the pandemic, so it will be a tall order, trying to get details of those whom they have come in contact with in the last one month.
“It will be hard for them to recall whom they have met but we will try to trace their close contacts and quarantine them,” said officials. (UNI)
