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The Centre must cap vaccine prices at ₹150 per dose as the current differential pricing fixed by the two Indian vaccine makers is quite exorbitant, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said on Thursday.
He also urged the Centre to ensure that vaccine manufacturers in India be asked to share the formula of their vaccines with all Indian manufacturers so that production of both Covaxin and Covishield can be ramped up to a large scale.
Addressing a press conference soon after his virtual interaction with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, the Delhi Health Minister said that he had also suggested to Harsh Vardhan that the Central government should import vaccines from abroad rather than forcing States to compete/fight with each other in international markets individually.
“I told him (Harsh Vardhan) that the Centre should import vaccines. Why should states do separate global tenders? It will bring a bad name for the country,” he said.
Jain reeled out numbers and did some math (based on certain assumption) to claim that the Serum Institute of India will end up making monthly profits of ₹960 crore on its monthly production of six crore doses of Covishield. He felt that this tantamounted to profiteering and therefore the Centre should intervene to cap the price at ₹150 per dose irrespective of whether the procurement is done by the Centre or State governments or private hospitals. “Companies cannot be allowed to earn huge profits during crisis,” Jain said.
Delhi Covid-19 Numbers
The national capital Delhi on Thursday saw its new Covid-19 cases decline to 10,489 and reported 308 deaths along with a positivity rate of 14.24 per cent, the lowest in a month, according to the latest Delhi State Health Bulletin.
The number of new cases is the lowest since April 10 when Delhi reported 7,897 fresh infections. The positivity rate is the lowest since April 13 when it came at 13.1 per cent.
While the highest number of daily deaths at 448 was recorded on May 3, the highest positivity rate at 36.2 per cent was recorded on April 22.
Delhi’s active cases as of 24 hours to Thursday (May 13) stood at 77,717 and cumulative positive rate stood at 7.58 per cent.
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