Modi's campaign for self-reliant India is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic through the private-backed two indigenous vaccines - Covaxin and Covishield, through which the country has launched the largest vaccination drive. While the vaccines were made available at the government facilities at free-of-cost, the private hospitals are charging Rs 250 per dose. With the Central government's recent gateway to the open market, the Covishield maker has increased the price to double the current amount to the private hospitals.

In what has become the effect of depending on the private sector for a much-needed measure to fight the pandemic, the Serum Institute of India, which manufactures the Covishield vaccine, has on Wednesday said that the price of its vaccine will be Rs 400 per dose for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals. The increase in the price had shocked the people as it has come when the nation is fighting the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Central government has recently announced that 50% of the vaccines from May 1 will be directed to the Center for procurement and the other 50% will be sold to the states and in the open market. As the Center has unclogged the gates of the open market, the Serum Institute has increased the price of the vaccine and it has advocated that the price is low while being compared to other countries. 

In a statement, Serum Institute said, "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." It has also stated that the Union government's directives will help scale up vaccine production and allow state governments, private hospitals, and vaccination centers to procure vaccines directly.

The Serum Institute has said that it would be challenging for the establishment in supplying the vaccine to the corporate entities individually in retail trade. However, the institute has asserted that the vaccine will be made available for them after 4 to 5 months. It said in a statement, "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." 

According to reports, the increase in prices will come to effect from May 1 during which the nation would unveil the third phase of the vaccination to concentrate on vaccinating the people who are 18 and above. The development has come after many younger people are getting infected by the viral infection. India has vaccinated 13,01,19,310 people so far as of Tuesday, as per the data from the Union Health Ministry.

The Serum Institute has compared its pricing to the other countries and said that the American vaccines are at over Rs 1000 per dose and Russian and Chinese vaccines are around Rs 750. The institute will sell per dose at Rs 600 to the private hospitals which will in turn levy more burden to the people as they have to pay more if they decide to take Covishield. 

The reports say that the government will continue its free-of-cost services to the vaccine and it has been reported that the government hospitals will charge the price from the people between 18 to 45 years of age for the vaccines from May 1. While the state government and the private hospitals would pay Rs 400 and Rs 600 per dose, the Central government will continue to receive Covishield doses at Rs 150 each. Recently, the Center has announced Rs 4,500 crore aid to the vaccine-makers Serum and Bharat Biotech, which manufacturers the Covaxin vaccine.