Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee slams BJP government over COVID vaccine price disparity
Mocking the BJP over its slogan of One nation, one party, one leader , she stressed that every Indian needs vaccine free of cost, regardless of their age and location.
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KOLKATA: Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre over the disparity in the price of vaccines being supplied to the Union government, states and private hospitals, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said rates should be the same for every buyer.
Mocking the BJP over its slogan of One nation, one party, one leader , she stressed that every Indian needs vaccine free of cost, regardless of their age and location.
Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India on Wednesday ignited a political firestorm after announcing a differential pricing system for its Covid vaccine under which state governments will have to pay Rs 400 per dose while private hospitals will have to fork out Rs 600.
The Pune-based entity currently supplies the vaccine to the Centre at Rs 150 per dose.
The Congress seized on the announcement and slammed the Narendra Modi government for allowing vaccine makers to profiteer while shrugging off its responsibility for sourcing, financing and distributing the vaccine in stark contrast to the way other nations have tried to deal with the pandemic.
Updated 4 minutes ago An official checks documents of a woman outside a vaccination centre in New Delhi on February 13. | Adnan Abidi/Reuters
All Indian adults can register to get their coronavirus vaccine on the government’s Co-WIN portal or the Aarogya Setu app from April 28, the Centre announced on Thursday.
Under the third phase of the inoculation drive, vaccine manufacturers can sell half their vaccines to state governments and the private hospitals. The Centre said it will provide vaccines free of cost for only the first 30 crore vulnerable persons. After that, vaccines will not be subsidised as they are being at present.
Slamming the Centre for lesser allocation of Remdesivir to Telangana, Health Minister Etela Rajender on Thursday said the state has to be given preference as it is home to many manufacturers of the anti-viral drug. Speaking to reporters, Rajender said the central government has allotted only over 21,000 from April 21-30 as against the state s expectation of four lakh. We do not know on what basis they (the centre) allotted 21,551 injections of Remdesivir. We took up the issues with Union Health Minister. He said he will look into it. We express our protest against this. I will also write a letter to Harsh Vardhan (union health minister).
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