Udaipur Lake City Press Club has submitted a memorandum to the District Collector on 31 August, requesting free treatment for reporters of the district, if they are infected by COVID.

In a recent case, a senior reporter of a leading daily in Udaipur was diagnosed with COVID and when he got admitted to a leading private hospital, he was charged for treatment – bed and medication. Private hospitals have begun to charge for COVID treatment after the District Collectors orders of home quarantine for patients with no or mild symptoms.

The memorandum said that reporters are the link between administration and the public and to give effect to this task, they are regularly interacting with administration and health centers as well as health workers, making them more prone to infection.

With the increasing cases of COVID in the district, the probability of infection among reporters as well as desk teams is also increasing.

Secretary of the Lake City Press Club, Pratap Singh Rathore, in his letter to Chetan Deora, District Collector of Udaipur, requested free treatment of reporters, journalists and media persons in the district if they were found to be infected with COVID. He further requested the District Collector to categorize infected media persons as COVID Warriors as their nature of duty, through private and not government, demands this recognition.