India on Friday last administered a record number of over 25.01 million Covid-19 vaccine doses taking the cumulative figure to over 790 million and giving a major push to the vaccination drive on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 71st birthday.
The numbers went up steadily through the day with the cumulative number of doses administered in the country crossing 792.5 million at 10 pm, according to data on the Co-WIN portal. Officials said the final tally will be higher when data arrive from all centres.
Hailing the achievement, Prime Minister Modi tweeted, "Every Indian would be proud of today's record vaccination numbers. I acknowledge our doctors, innovators, administrators, nurses, healthcare and all front-line workers who have toiled to make the vaccination drive a success. Let us keep boosting vaccination to defeat Covid-19."
Karnataka administered the highest number of over 26,90,000 doses, followed by Bihar with more than 26,60,000 doses, Uttar Pradesh with over 24,80,000 doses and Madhya Pradesh with over 23,700,000 doses.
"#VaccineSeva a gift to the prime minister on behalf of health workers and people of the country. On the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, India has crossed the historic figure of administering 20 million vaccine doses in a day, setting a new record. Well done India!" Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted in Hindi.
The government said India has crossed Europe in the total number of vaccine doses administered so far. On Friday, it said, 17,00,000 doses were administered per hour, 28,000 doses per minute and 466 doses per second.
Some opposition leaders said it would have been much better if the government conducted vaccination on a such large scale daily, and not just on PM Modi's birthday. RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha tweeted, "The scale of vaccination reached today underlines that we indeed have the capacity to increase the daily vaccination targets. Only thing required is to free the 'drive' from 'Event-Management' mode. Jai Hind."
22,60,000 doses in Guarat
Gujarat celebrated PM Modi's birthday with a record 22,60,000 doses of vaccination. To put the figure in perspective, the earlier one-day vaccination record was 895,000 on August 31. With the update on Friday, the total vaccination in Gujarat reached 55.5 million. Several states recorded high vaccination numbers on the day.
“The focus for the day was on 7,500 villages where the rate of vaccination is low compared to the state average. From the morning, over 5,000 teams were deployed with the stock of vaccinations which carried out inoculation at all possible places including public places, religious spots, at various societies and localities, and administrative or educational buildings,” said a senior health department official.
Several hospitals and medical associations across Gujarat also marked the day as organ donation pledge day. At Civil Hospital and IKDRC in Ahmedabad, over 700 staff members took pledge for donation of organs in case of brain death and disseminating information about it.
