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Covid vaccination drive underway at Mavle hospital (Express file photo) A day before the Centre rolls out precautionary doses of Covid-19 vaccines to all adults, the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech on Saturday slashed the prices of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines for private hospitals to Rs 225 per dose.
At present, each dose of Covishield costs Rs 600 at private hospitals, while Covaxin costs Rs 1,200.
Significantly, on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry issued guidelines to all states that private vaccination centres can charge a maximum of Rs 150 per dose as service charge over and above the cost of the vaccines. “Private vaccination centres must declare the price per dose chargeable by them on Co-WIN, in accordance with the prices declared by the manufacturers,” the ministry told the states.
The announcement by Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech came hours before the two vaccine manufacturers held a consultation meeting with the central government.
“We are pleased to announce that after discussion with the Central government, the SII has decided to revise the price of COVISHIELD vaccine for private hospitals from Rs.600 to Rs 225 per dose,” tweeted SII chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla.
Poonawalla also commended the government’s decision to open booster dose vaccination to all adults.
We are pleased to announce that after discussion with the Central Government, SII has decided to revise the price of COVISHIELD vaccine for private hospitals from Rs.600 to Rs 225 per dose. We once again commend this decision from the Centre to open precautionary dose to all 18+.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) April 9, 2022
On behalf of Bharat Biotech, company joint managing director Suchitra Ella said: “We have decided to revise the price of Covaxin from Rs 1200 to Rs 225 per dose for private hospitals”.
Announcing #CovaxinPricing .
We welcome the decision to make available precautionary dose for all adults. In consultation with the Central Government, we have decided to revise the price of #COVAXIN from Rs 1200 to Rs 225 per dose, for #privatehospitals.🇮🇳💉💉💉😷— Suchitra Ella (@SuchitraElla) April 9, 2022
India will continue to follow homologous vaccination for booster schedules. “Administration of precaution dose will be homologous i.e. same vaccine type will be used for precaution dose which was used for vaccination of 1st and 2nd dose,” the health ministry has said.
This means that a beneficiary who has received two doses of Covishield will have to take Covishield as the third dose. Similarly, those who received two doses of Covaxin will have to take Covaxin as the precautionary dose.
➡️ Precaution Dose to be now available to 18+ population group from 10th April, 2022, at Private Vaccination Centres.https://t.co/lmnT0NQXyN pic.twitter.com/U49UVJAPUt
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) April 8, 2022
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had Friday announced that the “precautionary” third dose of Covid-19 vaccines would be available for all those aged above 18 years who have completed nine months after their second dose, on payment at private vaccination centres, from April 10.
“All those who are more than 18 years of age and have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose, would be eligible for precaution dose. This facility would be available in all private vaccination centres,” the ministry said.
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