India creates world record with 2.5 crore Covid-19 vaccinations in a day

The government raced to administer a record number of shots on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday.

At 11:58 pm, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya confirmed the "historic" figure in a tweet.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate countrymen. "Every Indian would be proud of today's record vaccination numbers," he wrote and thanked doctors, innovators, administrators, nurses, healthcare and all front-line workers for toiling hard to vaccinate the highest number of people in a single day since the launch of the inoculation drive.

The government had set a target of 2.5 crore and crossed the mark by 10,390.

Till now, China had administered the highest number of shots -2.47 crore - in a single day in June.

In the evening, as India crossed the 2 crore mark, the World Health Organization's South-East Asia office tweeted its congratulations.

"Congratulations India for yet another milestone!" the UN health body's regional office said.

India crossed the one crore-mark in the afternoon, after which ministers and BJP leaders urged more people tweets get their shots.

"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," Mandaviya tweeted.

He was seen in a video celebrating with health workers and distributing sweets.