Pune: Covishield, a vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) will be available in private markets for Rs 1,000 per dose, said Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer of SII on Tuesday.

“We've given a special price of Rs 200 for the first 100 mn doses only to GoI on their request, that we want to support common man, vulnerable, poor, healthcare workers. After that we'll be selling it at Rs 1000 in pvt markets,” Adar Poonawalla was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The CEO of Serum stated the first 100 million doses of the Covishield vaccine were sold only to the government at a special price of Rs 200 because the vaccine maker wanted to support the common man, the vulnerable, the poor and healthcare workers, ANI reported.

On Tuesday, Adar Poonawalla also tweeted that it was an emotional moment for his team at the Pune facility centre as the very first shipments of the vaccine rolled out. 56.5 lakh doses of vaccine were transported from the facility centre to number of cities such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Guwahati and Kolkata.

Poonawalla shared two photographs with his tweet. “An emotional moment for the team at @SerumInstIndia as the first shipments of #Covishield finally leave for multiple locations across India,” he tweeted.

The central government has ordered 11 million doses at Rs 200 per dose. Two doses, 28 days apart, are planned to be vaccinated to 30 crore healthcare workers and others in priority groups recognised by states. As part of the government-sponsored vaccination of health workers, 5.5 million doses of Covaxin, advanced by Bharat Biotech, are also being obtained.