KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar termed ‘discriminatory’ the differential pricing of the COVID-19 vaccine by States and private hospitals and said it would adversely affect vaccination coverage.
“Differential pricing to States and private hospitals for procurement of vaccine is discriminatory and will affect vaccination coverage. In a National Health Emergency, profiteering must not be allowed. The Centre and State government must make vaccination free for 18+ years as a welfare measure,” the Karnataka Congress chief tweeted.
The Serum Institute of India on Wednesday announced that its Covishield vaccine will be made available to State governments at a price of ₹400 per dose and to private hospitals at ₹600 per dose. Earlier, speaking to mediapersons, the Congress leader alleged that the BJP governments in the State and in the Centre had failed to contain the spread of the virus owing to lack of strategy and experience.
None of the Ministers had gone to the districts. Instead of holding meetings, the authorities should have deployed all IAS, KAS officers and engineers in PWD, Irrigation and Energy Departments to handle the crisis, he said.
