With the government announcing assistance of Rs 3,000 crore to Serum nstitute of India, the company’s CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Thursday the vaccine output would be ramped up immediately and the big ramp-up will happen post-July. The production would then go up by 40 per cent to over 100 million doses a month.

Covishield will be sold at Rs 400 a shot to states and Rs 600 to private hospitals, the Serum Institute of India (SII) said today, days ahead of a new round of vaccinations from May 1 that will include all above 18.

The centre will continue to receive Covishield doses at ₹ 150 each, which means it will be cheapest to get a vaccine shot from central government hospitals or establishments.

Serum Institute said in a statement that its vaccines will still be more affordable than foreign jabs, which cost anywhere from ₹ 750 to ₹1,500 a shot.

As part of the government's new policy, 50 per cent of the vaccine doses will be reserved for the centre and the rest will be divided between states and private hospitals.

Serum said supplying the vaccine independently to corporates would be challenging and urged companies and individuals to access the shots through states and private hospitals.

"…owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity," said Serum in its statement.

"We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems."

Poonawalla told NDTV that even between now and July we will ramp up 15 to 20 per cent in our monthly capacities. Starting by the end of May,

There will be 15-20 per cent more doses in the market. After July, it will be 40 per cent… so after July we will cross 100 million doses per month." The company is currently producing around 65 million doses a month.

The government had announced another Rs 1,500 crore financial backing for Bharat Biotech to increase the production of Covaxin, The total production of homegrown Covaxin is expected to go up 10-fold to a 100 million doses a month as three public sector companies will also start producing the shots.

An additional 1.2 million doses will be needed with the government widening the inoculation campaign to cover all adults in the country.