Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin dispatched across India
India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive gathers pace; drugmaker to provide first 1.65 mn doses free of cost to govt
NEW DELHI: India’s vaccination drive against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) gathered momentum on Wednesday, with Bharat Biotech shipping its vaccine Covaxin to 11 cities a day after the Serum Institute of India (SII) dispatched about 6.44 million doses of its Covishield vaccine to 14 cities from its plant in Pune.
The 11 cities where the Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed vaccines have been sent are Ganavaram, Guwahati, Patna, Delhi, Kurukshetra, Bengaluru, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Chennai and Lucknow.
“After having received the government purchase order for 55 lakh [5.5million] doses, Bharat Biotech shipped the first batch of vaccines (each vial containing 20 doses)… While some shipments have arrived in the respective cities, others will be delivered later this evening,” the Hyderabad-based drugmaker said in a statement.
Most of the states that have received Covaxin will be using it in bigger health care facilities such as medical colleges so that adverse reactions post immunisation, if any, are better tracked as the experimental vaccine is to be given under clinical trial mode as per its regulatory approval condition.
“As per the Centre’s guideline, Covaxin is to be sent to ‘bigger facilities’, which for us will mean medical colleges. I will discuss it with the principal secretary and firm up a vaccine distribution plan tomorrow (Thursday),” said Manoj Kumar, executive director of the State Health Society, Bihar, who is also the state nodal officer for the Covid-19 vaccination.
Bihar has received 1,000 vials of Covaxin that is equal to 20,000 doses.
Individual consent has to be taken before administering Covaxin to any heath care worker, who will be vaccinated in the first phase from January 16, added Kumar.
In Odisha, Covaxin will be administered to 9,000 frontline health care workers. “Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech will be administered to 9,000 frontline healthworkers in Bhubaneswar
while Covishield of Serum Institute of India will be given to shortlisted people in all other districts across the state,” said Dr Bijay Panigrahi, nodal officer for Covid vaccination, Odisha.
While Bharat Biotech is 1.65 million doses of the vaccine free of cost to the Indian government, the remaining 3.85 million doses are being purchased at a cost of ₹295 per dose, exclusive of taxes, making the net cost of a Covaxin dose ₹206.
The government has also pro