Not fewer than 600 journalists have died worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent report by Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) has said.
PEC Secretary General Blaise Lempen in a statement, said the deaths occurred from Match 2020, with Peru having the highest record of 93 victims.
The Swiss based organisation founded in June 2004 by a group of journalists from several countries, expressed concerns, calling for priority vaccination of media workers.
It, however, said it was not possible to differentiate between journalists who became infected at work and those who were infected in their private lives.
“Because of their profession, journalists who go into the field to inform are indeed particularly exposed to the virus. Some of them, especially freelancers and photographers, cannot only work at home,” Blaise Lempen said.
PEC called for journalists to be treated as front-line workers and to be given priority vaccination, at their request.
According to its statistics, 602 journalists have died from COVID-19 since March 2020: Latin America comes first with more than half of the victims (303 deaths), Asia follows with 145 deaths ahead of Europe (94), North America (32) and Africa (28).
Peru is the country with the highest death toll (93 according to the Peruvian National Association of Journalists). Brazil is in second place with 55 victims, ahead of India (53), Mexico (45), Ecuador (42) and Bangladesh (41).
In the United States, 31 victims of COVID-19 were counted in the media world, according to the NGO.
Italy is the European country most mourning with 37 journalists dead of the new coronavirus.
In France, five deaths from Covid-19 have been announced, according to the press release.
