Third phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive starts in Pune

As the third phase of the vaccination drive started in Pune on Thursday, the Mayor of the city took the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Pune district is aiming to vaccinate 1 lakh people today with an equal share of recipients from Pune city, Pimpri-Chinchwad city and rural Pune. A campaign is being run since Wednesday for the same and the administration is geared up to achieve the target.

Murlidhar Mohol, Mayor Pune, said, "Today starts the next phase of vaccination in Pune, 15 lakh people are being vaccinated. Today the vaccination for people above 45 years of age is going on and I have taken the vaccine."

He made an appeal to the people to come forward to get vaccinated.

"100 per cent people should get vaccinated. The number of COVID-19 patients is increasing, we are increasing the number of beds, testing-count, ICU beds, oxygen beds but in spite of that 100 per cent vaccination is necessary to tackle coronavirus."

On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported 39,544 new COVID-19 cases, 23,600 discharges, and 227 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the state's health department.

Currently, 17,29,816 people are in-home quarantine while 17,863 are in institutional quarantine in Maharashtra.

( With inputs from ANI )