Covishield, Covaxin prices drop to ₹225 per shot day before booster drive begins
PremiumPrivate vaccination centres will begin administering booster doses to all adults above the age of 18 from Sunday
A day before the drive to administer precautionary Covid-19 vaccine dose to all adults begins, both Covishield and Covaxin manufacturers have decided to reduce the prices for private hospitals.
The Serum Institute of India has cut the rates of Covishield from ₹600 to ₹225 per dose, while Bharat Biotech has brought down the price of Covaxin from ₹1,200 to ₹225.
SII's Adar Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech cofounder Suchitra Ella took to Twitter to make the announcement.
"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 ₹ 225 per dose. We once again commend this decision from the Centre to open precautionary dose to all 18+," Poonawalla tweeted.
A little later, Ella wrote: “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 ₹ 1200 to ₹ 225 per dose, for #privatehospitals."
This comes a day after the SII announced that end-users will have to pay ₹600 for the Covishield booster dose and the hospitals will get it at a discounted price.
The central government stated earlier in the day that private vaccination centres can charge up to a maximum of ₹150 per dose as service charges over and above the cost of the vaccine.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who held an orientation meeting of the health secretaries of all the states and Union territories on Saturday, also informed that no fresh registration would be required for the precaution dose as all due beneficiaries are already registered on the CoWIN platform.
It was emphasised that all vaccinations must mandatorily be recorded on CoWIN and both the options of "online appointment" and "walk-in" registration and vaccination will be available at the private Covid vaccination centres (CVCs).
All those above the age of 18, who have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose, will be eligible for the precaution dose from 10 April.
India had started the administration of precaution doses for everyone above 60 years of age on 16 March. Earlier precaution dose was allowed only for healthcare workers, frontline workers and those above 60 years of age with comorbidities issues.
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