As of July 5, 80% of India’s new cases reported from 90 districts, including 14 were from NE States. (Image: PIB)
- MoHFW organises capacity building workshop for media in NE States
- Media urged to create enabling environment for COVID Appropriate Behaviour and vaccination in the region
New Delhi, July 8 (MExN): The need to bust myths about COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination and reinforcement of the importance of COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), among others, were key issues underscored during a capacity building workshop for NE media on July 8.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in partnership with UNICEF organised the workshop for media professionals and health correspondents of North East (NE) States on the current COVID situation in India with focus on the region.
Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, MoHFW, who addressed the workshop commended that media professionals for their sustained efforts in collective fight against COVID-19.
He said that media persons are major influencers of society as they can encourage people to vaccinate and follow CAB and acknowledged that the media plays a constructive role in overcoming vaccine hesitancy by busting myths and fake news that is widely shared on social media platforms, informed an official release from the Ministry.
Community ownership of CAB, Evidence Based Reporting and Busting Myths on COVID and vaccination were three chief India’s management strategy in combating COVID-19, he said.
14 districts with high cases
Giving a brief snapshot of prevailing COVID 19 situation in the region, Agarwal informed that as of July 5, 80% new cases in India reported from 90 Districts and out of this, 14 were from NE States.
It included 9 districts in Assam, 2 in Manipur and 1 each in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
Highlighting specific challenges linked to North Eastern States, he added that the Government of India has supported NE States following a proactive, pre-emptive, graded approach for fighting the COVID pandemic.
He also shared the details of active cases and the status of vaccination drive in the North Eastern States.
Meanwhile, acknowledging the media as an important stakeholder in creating an enabling environment for vaccination by busting myths, fears and apprehensions surrounding COVID vaccination, the Joint Secretary urged media persons to create a Jan Andolan (Public Movement) by applauding community warriors as role- models.
Besides various reasons for vaccine hesitancy, which may be local and could vary for different community groups, the workshop highlighted Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI), its management, and the best practices while reporting such events, the release from MoHFW said.
Over 130 media professionals and health correspondents from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura participated in the workshop virtually. Senior officials of MoHFW, Ministry of I&B, DD News, All India Radio and Press Information Bureau (PIB) of NE States also attended the workshop.
