BHUBANESWAR: The BJD and Congress on Sunday demanded that the Centre should procure Covaxin at a uniform price and provide it to the states. The price of the vaccine would burden the state exchequers at such a difficult time and slow down the vaccination programme, the parties stated.
Bharat Biotech has fixed price of a single dose of Covaxin at Rs 600 for the government and Rs 1,200 for private hospitals which is too high, the BJD maintained. "It is a matter of grave concern. We had thought that the price of Covaxin will be the same as Covishield. But, the price fixed is too high which will put immense pressure on the revenue of the state governments," BJD Rajya Sabha member and national spokesperson Amar Patnaik told mediapersons here.
The Rajya Sabha MP said if the state governments spend so much fund on procuring, it will put huge pressure on resources and development of health infrastructure which is required for fighting the second wave of pandemic.
"Going by the high pricing of Covid vaccines, how can the health infrastructure of the states improve? The Centre should step in and bear the cost of the vaccines by procuring them at a uniform price," he said. Congress also demanded immediate intervention of the Centre to resolve the issue.
How can the State government procure the vaccine at the high price fixed for Covaxin, Congress legislator Suresh Routray said and demanded its immediate rollback.BJP general secretary Lekhashri Samantsinghar, however, hoped that a solution to revise the price of the vaccine will be found very soon.
