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Covishield procurement price renegotiated, much lower than ₹200 per dose
The government had earlier procured the vaccines at ₹210 per dose, including taxes.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday said the price of Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, has been renegotiated. "We have renegotiated the price which is significantly lower than ₹200 per dose," the secretary said, without disclosing the new price. This is, however, the rate at which the government is procuring the vaccines. The new price is around ₹157.50, reports said.
However, it is not clear whether this will impact the amount that people are paying to get vaccinated at private hospitals. In the second phase of pan-India vaccination where senior citizens and people with co-morbidities between the age group of 45 and 59 are getting inoculated, private hospitals have been allowed to charge around ₹250 which includes ₹100 for the administration of the dose, thereby reducing the price of the vaccine dose to ₹150.
2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses delivered in a day for the first time: Govt
Before the first phase of the vaccination began on January 16, India procured 110 lakh doses of Covishield at the cost of ₹200 per dose, excluding ₹10 extra. From Bharat Biotech, the Centre had procured 38.5 lakh dosed at a rate of ₹295 per dose. But as Bharat Biotech provided 16.5 lakh doses free of cost, the price was around ₹206. In later phases, the Centre procured several crores of doses at the previous rate only.
As vaccination has been thrown open to the public belonging to priority groups, both Covaxin and Covishield are being equally charged at ₹250. State governments are not having to bear any cost for vaccination as the Centre is procuring and supplying the doses.
The ministry, however, did not mention whether a similar price negotiation is going on with Bharat Biotech.
More than 2.56 crore doses of Covi-19 vaccines have been administered till Thursday. This includes more than 67 lakh people above 60 years and people aged 45-60 years with comorbidities, apart from 71 lakh first doses and 40 lakh second doses have been given to healthcare workers and 70 lakh first doses and 6 lakh second doses have been given to frontline workers till date, the health ministry said.
