COVID-19 vaccine may cost between Rs 200 to 295 in India: Health Ministry

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday said the COVID19vaccine may cost in the range of Rs 200 to 295 in India and two vaccines Covishield and Covaxin have received Emergency Use Authorisation EAU after going through established safety and immunogenicity in a wellprescribed regulatory processAsserting that the central government has been proactive and preemptive in addressing the needs of COVID19 vaccination in the country the Union Health Ministry said5472000 COVID19 vaccine doses have been received till date at the vaccination stores across the countryAddressing a press conference here Bhushan said all the preparedness are on track for COVID19 vaccine roll out from January 16As early as May 2020 a task force was set up to encourage indigenous Research andDevelopment in vaccines and developing pharmaceutical kits Efforts of the Taskforce have borne fruit National Expert Group in VaccineAdministration for COVID19 NEGVAC was set up in August 2020 headed by Member Health he saidA total of 110 lakh doses of Covishield vaccines are being procured from Punebased drug firm Serum Institue of India SII at the cost of Rs 200 per dose As many as 55 lakh doses of Covaxin vaccine are being procured from Hyderabadbased drug firm BharatBiotech International Limited BBIL of which the cost of 385 lakhs doses of Covaxin isRs 295 per dose BBIL is providing 165 lakh doses of Covaxin free of cost to the central government as a special gesture and hence the cost of Covaxin is Rs 206 per dose Bhushan addedHe said 100 per cent doses will be received by January 14 2021 in all statesUTTill date a total of 5472000 COVID19 vaccine doses have been received so far100 per cent doses to be received by January 14 2021 in all statesUT When I said 100 per cent that means 1 crore 10 lakhs doses from SII and 55 lakh doses from BBIL he saidSpeaking on the preparedness for the COVID19 vaccination drive Bhushan said All preparations are on track for COVID19 vaccine roll out from January 16 A total of 26 virtual meetingstraining were held with statesUTs 2360 master trainers 61000 programme managers 2 lakh vaccinators 37 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained so farThe health secretary said it will be a sequential rollout of COVID19 vaccination as the vaccine will be available in a limited quantityIn the first phase of vaccination approximately 1 crore health care workers approximately 2 crore front line workers and around 27 crore prioritized agegroups will be vaccinated The cost of vaccination of health care workers and front line workers will be borne by central government solely he saidThe inoculation effect takes 14 days to develop after the administration of the two dosages Hence it is imperative to maintain COVID19 appropriate behavior before and after one gets vaccinated Bhushan addedThere are four Gross Medical Store Depot GMSDs at Karnal in Haryana Kolkata in West Bengal Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai in MaharashtraAll states have at least one statelevel regional temperaturecontrolled vaccine storeUttar Pradesh has 9 Madhya Pradesh has 4 Gujarat has 4 Kerala has 3 J and K has 2 Karnataka has 2 and Rajasthan has 2 stores These states will receive the vaccine from manufacturers and the government will be responsible to take it to cold chain he saidRegarding the availability of the vaccine in the country Bhushan said Two vaccines namely Covishiled and Covaxin have received Zydus Cadilas phase II trials were completed on December 20 The third phase of the trials begins on January 21 Sputnik Vs second phase trials are completed and the third trial ongoing Gennova and Biological E vaccines Phase 1 trial are still going on and probably phase two trial will begin on March Soon you will see that these vaccines will also get approval from DCGI for EUAAsked if the states and the beneficiaries will have a choice between Covaxin and Covishield Bhushan said In many countries more than one vaccine is being used There is no such option available to any of the beneficiaries in these countriesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever