The Ministry of Health has revealed that atleast 50 journalists in Uganda have tested positive of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
According to Ministry of Health statistics, 9082 persons have tested positive and 84 died of COVID-19 in Uganda.
Dr Charles Olaro, the director of Curative services at Ministry of Health revealed that atleast 50 journalists have tested positive of the virus representing close to 0.6% of total cases.
Dr. Olaro didn’t reveal the media houses or areas where the journalists have been registered but noted that the numbers have been aggregated from the persons who indicated journalism as their classifications during testing.
He explained that some of the journalists could have contracted the disease because of the nature of their work.
Dr. Peter G. Mwesige, the Executive Director of The African Centre for Media Excellence said he was struck by the revelation and asked the journalists to mind about their safety as they go around their work.
Emmanuel Ainebyona, the Spokesperson of Ministry of Health said many of the journalists who were found positive are still on treatment and recovering from the virus.
He however noted despite the fact that journalists were at the forefront on spreading information on the prevention against the virus, many were not observing the Standard Operating Procedures during press conferences and other interactions with various people in the early stages of the pandemic which could have contributed to the infections.
But Ainebyona noted that there is improvement with many wearing masks, sanitizing daily and embracing use of microphones mounted on stands so as to observe social distancing with news sources who could expose them to infection.
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