No physical presence of journos, all Gujarat govt press conferences in capital go live online amid Covid19 scare

Gandhinagar: The Government of Gujarat today converted all its press conferences online for safety of journalists. Secretary of Chief Minister’s office Ashwani Kumar today shared this information.

Gujarat government holds daily press conferences in capital Gandhinagar. Principal Secretary of Health department, Dr. Jayanti Ravi addresses daily two press briefings, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Secretary of CMO Ashwani Kumar addresses daily press conference in early afternoon. State Police chief, DGP Shivanand Jha addresses daily press conference in later portion of afternoon.

For last over a month, this schedule was regularly going on and intact, however recently three TV journalists have been detected Covid19 positive. At least one of them is regular at government’s press conferences in Gandhinagar. It was a concern expressed from both sides that daily multiple press conferences with physical presence can make journos and others vulnerable to attract possible Covid19 infection.

In view of this, the State government has decided to hold all press conferences online. The decision has been taken at Chief Minister’s level.

It’s worth noting that Amdavad Municipal Commissioner has also started addressing the media and the citizens live online for last few days. He took this decision after local Congress MLA Imran Khedawala was detected Covid19 positive and many journalists complained that they had interacted with Khedawala. He takes questions from media persons over Whatsapp and reply them selectively sometime after his online address/briefing.

DeshGujarat