On Narendra Modi's birthday, India administers 2.26-crore jabs

New Delhi: India administered over 2.26 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses on Friday till 7pm, setting a record on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday. This is the first time that more than two crore jabs have been administered in a single day

The government's tracker showed around 42,000 vaccinations in a minute, said a senior health officer. Earlier, the country crossed one crore vaccinations in a day on September 6, August 31 and August 27. The Union government is aiming to vaccinate record number of individuals to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 71st birthday. A 20-day mega event — "Seva and Samarpan Abhiyan" — has also been planned by the BJP to mark his 20 years in public service.

In a tweet in Hindi, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the best gift for Modi would be to convince all those who haven't been inoculated yet to get their shots. "Let's do #VaccineSeva and give him (Modi) birthday gift by getting vaccinated those who have not taken the dose so far," he tweeted.

During the 20-day mega outreach programme that will continue till October 7 — the day Modi was sworn in as Gujarat Chief Minister in 2001 — the party will hold massive cleanliness and blood donation campaigns, and send five crore postcards to the Prime Minister to congratulate him for his efforts.