Serum Institute shares price of 'Covisheild' ahead of May 1 COVID-19 vaccination drive, check rates here

Representational Image (Reuters)

New Delhi: Ahead of the next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on May 1, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced the prices of its COVISHEILD vaccines.

The SII welcomed the Centre's announcement to vaccinate everyone above 18 and said for the next two months, it will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production.

"Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination program, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the State governments and private hospitals," it said.

The SII's COVID-19 vaccine COVISHEILD will be available for Rs 400/dose in State Government hospitals, whereas, at Rs 600/dose in the private hospitals.

They said that considering the global vaccine prices, they are ensuring that their coronavirus vaccines are affordable in comparison to any other vaccines in the world. The SII also stated the prices per dose of the global vaccines in the private market. It said that the American vaccines are available for more than Rs 1500 per dose, Russian and Chinese vaccines for more than Rs 750 each per shot.

The Serum Institute of India said that owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation, it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity. 

"We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. Post 4-5 months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade," the SII stated.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT pic.twitter.com/bTsMs8AKth — SerumInstituteIndia (@SerumInstIndia) April 21, 2021

Earlier on April 19, the Centre announced that people over 18 years will be able to take the COVID-19 vaccine jab from May 1.

The world's largest COVID-19 vaccination drive kicked off in India on January 16, 2021. India has so far given 13,01,19,310 vaccine doses through 19,01,413 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, India recorded 2,95,041 new coronavirus cases and 2,023 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest ever since the pandemic broke out, the data by the Union Ministry of Health said on Wednesday (April 21, 2021) morning.