Zee News said on Monday, 18 May that 28 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and its office, newsroom, and studios here have been sealed.
“The global pandemic has now become a personal story for Zee Media. Last Friday, one of our colleagues tested positive for COVID-19. As a responsible organisation, we initiated mass testing of all those who could have been in direct or indirect contact with the said individual,” Sudhir Chaudhary, Editor-in-Chief, Zee News said in a statement.
“So far 28 of our teammates have tested positive. Fortunately, most of them are asymptomatic and not complaining of any discomfort. We believe this is because of early diagnosis and pro-active intervention,” the statement said.
These are difficult times. 28 of my colleagues at @ZeeNews have tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully all of them are fine,mostly asymptomatic. I wish them a speedy recovery and salute their courage & professionalism. Sharing the official statement with you. pic.twitter.com/50yW2auj0Y
— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) May 18, 2020
“We are following the best practices to break the cycle and contain the infection, in coordination with all government and health authorities. All health protocols and official guidelines are being followed,” Chaudhary announced.
Following this, some social media users claimed that Zee News employees found infected with Covid-19 were still at work. In response, Chaudhary alleged that a malicious campaign was being conducted to distort his statement.
He said no infected employee had come to work, and all the contacts of the employee who tested positive on May 15 had been tested and quarantined.
After social media users claimed that the infected employees were still at work, Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary clarified all patients have been quarantined.
Over the past two months, journalists from several media organisations have tested positive for the coronavirus. On April 21, 26 employees of a Tamil news channel based in Chennai tested positive for the coronavirus.
The previous day, over 50 journalists from Mumbai were found infected, after samples of over 170 journalists were tested.
At the moment, Zee Media Corporation Ltd has 2,500 employees, by far the largest in the private sector.