After many states complained about the vaccine shortage, Bharat Biotech on Tuesday said Covaxin has been directly supplied to 18 states since May 1 and the firm will continue its steady supply of Covaxin.
The states include Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, the Hyderabad-based firm added. The company is supplying its vaccine to Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
In a tweet Bharat Biotech said Covaxin has been directly supplied to 18 states since May 1. In a separate tweet containing the same list of 18 states, the company’s Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella said that smaller shipments of the vaccine were sent to them on May 10. In response to the complains of vaccine shortage by several states, Ella tweeted that it is quite disheartening to the teams to hear some states complaining about company’s intentions.
The company’s Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella had earlier said that Bharat Biotech has commenced direct supply of Covaxin with effect from May 1 to several states based on the allocations received by the central government.
On April 29, Bharat Biotech had announced a cut in the price of Covaxin for states to Rs 400 per dose from the earlier Rs 600. This followed widespread criticism of its pricing policy as it sold Covaxin to the central government at Rs 150 per dose.
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India had expanded its Covid-19 vaccination drive by allowing its large 18-plus population to get inoculated from May 1. Under the Centre’s new vaccination policy for third phase of inoculation that started from May 1, states and private hospitals have the onus of procuring shots from the manufacturers for those in the age group of 18-44.
India have been administered over 17.38 crore doses of Covid vaccines while more than 3.73 crore beneficiaries have received both Covaxin and Covishield shots.