Apollo Hospitals to offer Sputnik V vaccines from June at Rs 1195 per dose

Executive Vice-chairperson of the Apollo Group of Hospitals Shobana Kamineni stated that they had completed administering 10 lakh vaccine doses across 80 locations in India, and would now prioritise frontline workers, high-risk people and corporate employees.

"In June, we will do a million (10 lakh) doses every week and double that in July. We are on track to complete 20 million (2 crore) jabs by September this year," Kamineni said in a statement.

Inoculations with the Russian vaccine began in the country earlier this month after Dr Reddy’s imported some doses.

A consignment of 30 lakh jabs, in partnership with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, is scheduled to land in Hyderabad by May end. Meanwhile, Moscow has decided to ramp up Sputnik V production to more than 50 lakh doses next month and over 1 crore in July.

After Dr Reddy’s, Panacea Biotec, another leading pharmaceutical company in India, started producing the Sputnik V vaccine in collaboration with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on May 24.

Sputnik V is the third COVID-19 vaccine to get clearance in India following emergency use authorisation from the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO).

According to NDTV, India has become the 60th country to authorise the use of the Russian vaccine, which is now approved for a total of three billion people or 40 percent of the world's population.