REVEALED: Price of COVID-19 vaccine per dose for state governments and private hospitals

In a significant development, Serum Institute of India (SII) on Wednesday (April 21) announces prices of its Covishield vaccines ahead of May 1, when COVID-19 vaccine shots will be opened for everyone above 18 years.

According to SII, the vaccine will be priced at Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals.

"Serum Institute of India (SII), welcomes the recent announcement made by Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Finance Ministry to accelerate India’s vaccination drive. The promising directives will help to scaleup vaccine production, and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directly," SII said in a statement.

"For the next two months, we 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," added the statement.

"Furthermore, 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. We at Serum, would like to assure you that we will continue to do our best to help everyone and would request you all to be patient with us," noted the statement.