New Delhi: India on Friday administered a record number of over 2.26 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses taking the cumulative figure to over 79 crore and giving a major push to the inoculation 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 79.25 crore 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 late in the night.
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 26.9 lakh doses, followed by Bihar with more than 26.6 lakh doses, Uttar Pradesh with over 24.8 lakh doses, Madhya Pradesh with over 23.7 lakh doses and Gujarat with over 20.4 lakh 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 2 crore 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 lakh 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."
The daily vaccinations crossed the one-crore mark for the fourth time in less than a month.
Mandaviya said this is the fastest pace at which one crore doses have been administered.
"On PM @Narendra Modi Ji's birthday, till 1:30 pm, the country has crossed the mark of 1 crore vaccines, the fastest so far, and we are continuously moving forward. I believe that today we will all make a new record of vaccination and give it as a gift to the prime minister," he had said in a tweet in Hindi earlier along with the hashtags "VaccineSeva" and "HappyBdayModiji".
The daily COVID-19 vaccination in the country was over 1 crore on September 6, August 31 and August 27.
The WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (WHO SEARO) congratulated India for reaching the milestone of administering two crore doses of Covid vaccines in a single day.
WHO SEARO has tweeted, "Congratulations India for yet another milestone!
Meanwhile, with 34,403 more people testing positive for COVID-19, India's overall infection tally has increased to 3,33,81,728. The count of active cases has dipped to 3,39,056.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease is 3,25,60,474, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.33 per cent. The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,44,248 with 320 more fatalities being recorded.
The number of active cases now comprises 1.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.64 per cent, according to the data updated by the ministry at 8 am.
It said that active COVID-19 cases in the country decreased by 3,867 cases in a span of 24 hours. Also, 15,27,420 tests were conducted on Thursday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 54,92,29,149. The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 1.97 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 84 days.