New Delhi: A day prior to the booster shots of Covid-19 vaccine made available for the adult population in India, the prices of Covishield and Covaxin at the private hospitals have been slashed by more than half on Saturday.
It has been decided that the price of both the vaccines will now be Rs 225. Before the revision of the rate, Covishield was available at Rs 600 while the price of Covaxin was Rs 1200.
Taking to the Twitter handle, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech cofounder Suchitra Ella made the announcement.
Adar Poonawalla wrote, “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+.”
According to a report by news agency ANI, Ella said, “We have decided to revise the price of Covaxin from Rs 1200 to Rs 225 per dose for private hospitals.”
Notably, India has decided to make the Covid-19 booster doses available to all adults from Sunday, April 10.
"The administration of Precaution Dose to 18+ population through Private Vaccination Centres would start from 10th April (Sunday), 2022. All those who are more than 18 years of age & have completed 9 months after the administration of second dose, would be eligible for Precaution Dose," the health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, according to the health ministry's data, about 96 per cent of all 15+ age group in the country has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while about 83 per cent of this population has received both doses.
More than 2.4 crore Precaution Doses have also been administered to Healthcare Workers, Frontline Workers, and 60+ population groups.