Private hospital chain Fortis Healthcare on Thursday announced that Sputnik V, the third anti-coronavirus vaccine approved for use in India, will be available at its Gurgaon and Mohali facilities as part of a limited pilot roll-out from Saturday.
The vaccine stock has been procured directly from Dr. Reddy's Laboratories according to government guidelines, it said as reported by news agency PTI.
"The two-dose vaccine will be available at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, and Fortis Hospital, Mohali," the private hospital chain said in a statement.
In the coming days, the vaccine will be available at more Fortis hospitals across 11 cities as part of the phase-wise pilot project.
Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD and CEO, Fortis Healthcare, said, "Fortis is actively working towards ensuring that as many Indians as possible are fully vaccinated. To date, our units were only providing Covaxin and Covishield."
"However, we are pleased to announce that Fortis, in collaboration with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, is among the first to provide a third vaccine option, at Fortis Memorial Research Institute and Fortis Hospital Mohali, with the dual objective of expanding and scaling up the vaccination drive and lowering the infection risks to future mutations of the virus."
Earlier, Delhi's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital had also said they will start administering the Russian COVID-19 vaccine by June 20.
The Centre has fixed the price of the vaccine at ₹1,145 per dose. The maximum price of Covishield for private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) has been fixed at ₹780 per dose, while that of Covaxin is ₹1,410 per dose.
Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the marketing partner for the vaccine in the country, has been importing the shots from Russia. Over a period of time, the vaccine is also going to be manufactured in India.
