Serum Institute of India (SII) announced the prices of the Covishield vaccine Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals the company said in a release on Wednesday.
The Government on April 19 announced that everyone above 18 years of age will be eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 from May 1 as it liberalised the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers.
Serum Institute in their press release further stated that “we welcome the recent announcement made by Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Finance Ministry to accelerate India’s vaccination drive. The promising directives will help to scale up vaccine production, and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directlyâ€.
“For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production, Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India’s vaccination program, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitalsâ€.
Considering the global vaccine prices, we are ensuring that our vaccines are affordable in comparison to any other vaccines in the world.
“Furthermore, owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade†reads the press release.
