The incumbent West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday declared the journalists as COVID warriors while urging the Centre for free vaccination across the country.

Briefing the mediapersons, the chief minister said, "I declare all the journalists as COVID warriors. You work taking your lives at risk. We have lost so many journalists due to COVID. The COVID management is my priority. There is a shortage of vaccine supply. Approximately 65 per cent of vaccines being produced in India were already sent overseas. Still, we are vaccinating 50,000 people a day. Till now, we have administered more than 1.5 crore vaccine doses."