By Madhu Mishra

Ranchi, June 2020: After doling out food packets and safety gears to the vulnerable section like rickshaw pullers, the Ranchi archdiocese on June 10 stepped out to help the media persons by offering them personal protective gears like gloves, masks, sanitizers and other commodities.

Hundreds of media persons of various publications and electronic channels were given away safety kits by archbishop Felix Toppo and auxilary bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi at a function organized by the Ranchi Catholic Church.

Each safety kit contained reusable gloves, reusable masks, sanitizers and soaps.

The archbishop lauded the role of media persons for their candid acts by connecting to the masses and apprising them about the latest information by risking their lives in the face of Coronavirus disease (Covid) outbreak.

They observed that media persons were rendering the yeoman’s service by updating the spread of the disease, which has so far contracted more than 2.76 lakh people across the country.

“Media persons are among the vulnerable sections, as they have to go out and expose themselves to the high risk of contracting the disease in the larger social interest,” said Archbishop Toppo.

The cases of Covid witnessed sharp shoot over the past 10 days in Jharkhand after the Centre lifted the lockdown and resorted to unlocking process. There were more than 1415 persons in the state, who were tested positive for Covid and undergoing treatment at the government facilities.

Representatives and journalists of all leading publications such as Dainik Bhaskar, Prabhat Khabar, Khabar Mantra, Dainik Jagran, Hindustan Times, Times of India, News 18 and Inext were given the protective kits. “Only a few publications were invited keeping in mind the needs of social distancing and public safety rules. Other publications are invited to collect the kits for their personnel,” said a Church Spokesman.

The Church has also readied 800 more safety kits for distributions among representatives of other media houses in the next few days. Earlier, they had distributed protective gears to police and traffic police personnel, who were deployed in different parts of the state capital to ensure lockdown and thereby help the people prevent the spread of Covid.

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