The government has accepted the demand of Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, which supplies the vaccine to the country amid the corona virus epidemic, to increase the prices of the vaccine. Now the government will take SII between August and December this year. One dose of Covishield will be purchased for Rs 205 and Covaxin for Rs 215. The government has also placed orders for a total of more than 66 crore doses to both the companies.
Government will buy 37.5 crore doses of Kovishield
Indian Express According to government sources, between August and December, 66 crore more doses of Corona Vaccine Covishield and Covaccine will be purchased at Rs 205 and Rs 215 per dose, respectively. This price will not include tax. Inclusive of all taxes, a single dose of Covishield will cost Rs 215.25 and Covaccine Rs 225.75. During this period 37.5 crore doses of Covishield and 285 crore doses of Covaxin will be procured.
The central government had given indications of revision of prices after June 21
Till now the central government was procuring the vaccine from both the companies at Rs 150 per dose. This put pressure on the pharma companies to increase the production of the vaccine. In this regard, the companies had demanded to increase the price of the vaccine. In response to this, the government had said that after the implementation of the new policy of vaccination from June 21, the prices would be revised. Under this policy, the government is buying 75 percent of the vaccine produced. Corona Vaccine
State governments were getting expensive vaccines
Under the new vaccine policy, companies can sell 25 percent of the doses to private hospitals. For this also the government has fixed the price. Before the new vaccine policy came into force on June 21, state governments had to buy the doses they needed. For the state governments, the companies had kept the cost of Kovashield at Rs 300 per dose and Covaxin at Rs 400 per dose. State governments had protested against the expensive price. Vaccination campaign
What is the status of vaccination campaign in the country?
Talking about the world’s largest vaccination campaign going on in the country, so far 39,96,95,879 doses of vaccine have been administered. Only 42,12,557 doses were administered on the previous day. The government had set a target of one crore doses daily from mid-July. Vaccine shortage is being felt once again in many states of the country, due to which the vaccination campaign has to be stopped in many places and its speed is being affected in many places.
