Private hospitals can buy vaccines only via CoWIN not directly from manufacturers

July 1: Private hospitals can no longer buy vaccines directly from manufacturers. They will now have to place orders on CoWIN from 1 July. This was stated by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW).  Following payment through the NHA portal, the Union Health Ministry will facilitate the supply of these jabs to private hospitals. The ministry also capped the number of doses a private hospital can order for a given month.

PCVCs can place orders for the jabs up to four instalments and payment should be made within three days of placement of orders. Payment will be accepted only through “digital or electronic mode”. Aggregation of demand shall be carried out only for the Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.