India will get Covid vaccine at less than Rs 730 per dose, health secretary says

Health secretary briefs opposition leaders at all-party meeting. Leaders express concerns over infrastructure and resources in place to roll out Covid vaccine in India.

File image of Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan | ANI

New Delhi: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan Friday said internationally Covid-19 vaccine doses are available at $10-35 (Rs 730 to Rs 2,555) per dose, but with eight vaccines in contention, India will get it at much lower prices.

“Every single Indian who needs to be vaccinated, will be vaccinated,” said Bhushan during his presentation to political leaders at an all-party meeting.

A source who attended the meeting told ThePrint that Bhushan also said vaccines will be available at less than Rs 730 per dose in India.

The Serum Institute of India, which has said it will move for regulatory approval in two weeks, has already announced it would give the vaccine developed by Oxford University at $3 (Rs 225).

Bhushan said India is looking at vaccinating 30 crore people as priority, including health workers, doctors, people with comorbidities and those aged above 50 years. 

The process of preparing a database of healthcare workers is already underway across the country and will be completed by Saturday, he added.

Bhushan also told political leaders about the three-tiered mechanism at the level of the state, district and blocks to monitor the vaccination drive. 

Steering committee meetings will be completed by 6 December, state task force meetings by 8 December, district task force meetings will happen in all states by 12 December and block task force meetings by 15 December.

Opposition leaders raise concerns over infrastructure, funding

As many as 12 leaders from opposition parties, including the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, attended the all-party meeting, where they expressed concern over the infrastructure and resources in place to carry out the vaccination. 

“We need to think in advance about our preparation of the storage infrastructure,” a leader, who attended the meeting, quoted senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad as saying. 

Azad also emphasised the need for future pandemic preparedness, especially on how to keep the security forces safe.

DMK leader T.R. Baalu claimed India would need Rs 3 lakh crore to vaccinate the entire population and wanted to know how the government would make provisions for that, said the leader mentioned above.

He suggested that private sector and NGOs should be roped in, and CSR funds be used for vaccination. 

Baalu sparred with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi after the latter told him to cut short his speech when he raised the issue of farmers agitation. 

Sources said that Baalu retorted saying that when the prime minister was present, Joshi should allow people to have their say. After a brief exchange of words, Baalu was muted.

‘No roadmap for vaccination of normal people’

After the all-party meeting, some leaders complained that the PM did not address the questions they had asked and some of the small parties were not allowed to speak, said leaders from Left parties and RJD.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader in Lok Sabha, told ThePrint: “There’s no roadmap for vaccination of normal people. It (government) stated that those who need to be vaccinated will be vaccinated but who’s going to decide this? There was no discussion on plan to discuss how the vaccine will be given to the poor.” 

Addressing the leaders of opposition parties after they had made their interventions, PM Modi said the wait for Covid-19 vaccine won’t be long with experts believing that it may be ready in a few weeks.

“India will start Covid-19 vaccination programme soon after getting the green signal from experts,” Modi told the leaders and said the Centre is already in talks with state governments over the vaccine price.

“A decision regarding it will be taken keeping public health as topmost priority,” the PM added.

Modi also requested leaders, who did not get a chance to talk, to submit their suggestions to him. “We will go through all the suggestions,” he said.

The all-party meeting was called to discuss issues, including India’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution, cost and free vaccination. This was the second all-party meeting that the government had convened to discuss the Covid-19 situation since the pandemic broke out.

The all-party meeting came close on the heels of Modi visiting three vaccine development facilities —  Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad, Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad and Serum Institute of India in Pune — in the past week.

(With inputs from Fatima Khan)