Mumbai: Will rope in psychiatrists to help COVID-19 patients, says Eknath Shinde

On the first day of the Phase 3 of the universal immunisation on May 1, 99,535 citizens, including those from the 18-44 age group, were vaccinated through 1,537 centres in Maharashtra. The state continues to be top among other states with the cumulative anti COVID 19 vaccination of 1,63,12,656 people. Meanwhile, urban development minister Eknath Shinde, on Sunday, said the government will rope in psychiatrists to keep the morale of the COVID-19 patients high and provide counselling to those who are undergoing treatment in the ICU of the private hospitals. He said such service is provided in jumbo COVID-19 care centres. Further, he said the doctors have been asked to undertake the vaccination drive as soon as possible considering the third wave of the pandemic.

Of the 99,535 citizens, 9,269 got vaccine shot in Nagpur, 9,091 in Thane, 8,202 in Osmanabad, 5,531 in Buldhana, 5,406 in Beed and 3,940 in Nashik. The state government has recently set a new record by administering 5 lakh doses in a single day.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the state plans to vaccinate 8 to 9 lakh citizens per day provided the central government supplies adequate vaccine doses. He also stated that the government is ready to pay at one go for the procurement of 12 crore vaccine doses to inoculate about 6 crore people in the age group of 18-44 years.

The Shiv Sena chief, however, made a fresh plea to the central government to provide adequate vaccine doses while announcing that the state will successfully come out of the present crisis soon.