New Delhi, Jun 17 (IANS): Fortis Healthcare on Thursday announced that Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 will be available at two of its hospitals as part of a limited pilot roll-out from June 19.

The two-dose Covid shot will be available at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram and Fortis Hospital, Mohali. It will be extended at more Fortis hospitals across 11 cities. The price per dose for Sputnik V (as fixed by the government) including administrative charges is Rs 1,145.

"Till date, our units were only providing Covaxin and Covishield. We are pleased to announce that Fortis, in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories, is among the first to provide a third vaccine option, with the dual objective of expanding and scaling up the vaccination drive and lowering the infection risks to future mutations of the virus," Fortis Healthcare MD and CEO, Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, said, in a statement.

"We urge all Indian citizens to vaccinate themselves and help make the drive successful -- only if we get ourselves vaccinated and follow Covid appropriate behaviour, can the chain of infections and community transmission be broken. It is essential that we follow all recommended measures by the government to protect ourselves, our families and loved ones and prevent a possible third wave," he added.

Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be cleared for immunisation programme in India after Covaxin and Covishield.

Developed by Russia's Gamaleya National Center, Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots. With an efficacy of 91.6 per cent, Sputnik V, released in August last year, became the first vaccine against Covid-19 in the world.