New Delhi: As the country struggles to combat the second wave of Covid2019 cases, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that journalists should also be treated as ‘frontline workers’ and be considered eligible for the ongoing vaccination drive.

An increasing number of journalists are getting infected with the novel Coronavirus while reporting from the ground. Some of them even lost their lives in the past year. “Journalists are reporting from most adverse situations. They should be treated as frontline workers and should be allowed vaccination on priority. Delhi government is writing to the Centre in this regard,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.

Journalists are reporting from most adverse situations. They shud be treated as frontline workers and shud be allowed vaccination on priority. Delhi govt is writing to centre in this regard

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 14, 2021

Uttarakhand has already announced Covid2019 vaccinations for journalists without any age restrictions and ordered to set up vaccination centres for them in the state. "During the ongoing pandemic, the journalists in the state worked like frontline workers in providing the required information to the people about Covid2019 which helped the government significantly," Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat had said on 4 April.

India had kickstarted the vaccination drive on 16 January with two vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin, which were administered to the frontline workers including doctors and hospital staff. The second phase of the vaccination drive began on 1 March, when persons above 60 years of age and those with co-morbidities were permitted to take the jabs. The third phase began on 1 April for people aged above 45 years.

The government has recently approved another vaccine, Russia's Sputnik V, for emergency use.

Meanwhile, in yet another alarming spike, India recorded over 1.84 lakh fresh Covid cases in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry. The daily average of caseloads across the country crossed 1.5 lakh last week. The country has lost as many as 1,000 lives during the last 24 hours. The soaring cases have left the hospitals over-burdened, with a shortage of medical supplies including hospital beds and oxygen cylinders.