The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to procure one crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine for the third phase of the vaccination drive from May 1, for those above18 years of age.
MUMBAI: Let there be uniform Covid-19 vaccine rates, a public interest litigation has urged the Bombay High Court challenging the intelligible different rates of Covishield and Covaxin by pharmaceutical companies for sale to government and private hospitals.
The PIL is filed by advocate Fayzan Khan and three law students - Arman Parve, Bushra Sayed and Trupti Gaikar - who are aggrieved at the varying charges announced by Serum Institute of India for its vaccine Covidshield at Rs 400/- for State government and Rs 600/- for private hospitals.
Similarly Bharat Biotech also announced per dose Covaxin rates at Rs 600 for State government, Rs 1200 to private hospitals and $ 15-20 for exports. The petition has referred to media reports and annexed a comparative chart that shows that the vaccine is much cheaper in foreign countries. “This denotes that the pharma companies are milking the fear psychosis of increased death rates due to Covid19,’’ says the PIL filed through advocate V
Politics derail serious vaccination drive
Amid a surge in Corona positive cases, politics on vaccination drive has been intensified in the country as the Union Government on Wednesday came out with figures to counter claims of doses shortage in the opposition-ruled states.
The Union Health Ministry has shared details of total doses supplied to different states and Union Territories (UTs), utilization, and wastage of vaccine. The Minister has shared this data to counter allegations of opposition-ruled states, regarding the non-availability of vaccines, for the next phase of the drive. There have been some media reports recently quoting some Maharashtra state government officials pointing out that the vaccines in the state are finished thereby adversely impacting the vaccination drive in the state , the Union Health ministry mentioned in its official data.