India did over 25 million covid vaccinations in a day for the first time on Friday as the government raced to deliver a record on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday.
At 11:58 pm, India's Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted to confirm the "historic" milestone in the country's fight against covid.  The government's tracker showed around 800 vaccinations per second, or around 48,000 in a minute, on Friday. 

Modi, who turned 71, took to Twitter earlier to declare that "every Indian would be proud of today's record vaccination numbers" and thank healthcare and frontline workers who had worked hard to make the vaccination drive a success.

China had inoculated the most number of people in a day - 24.7 million people - in June.

In the evening, as the country crossed the 20 million-mark, the World Health Organization's South-East Asia office tweeted its congratulations.

"Congratulations India for yet another milestone!" the global health body's regional arm said, tagging Mandaviya and news agency ANI in its tweet.

The 10-million-mark was crossed earlier in the afternoon, after which ministers and BJP leaders put out tweets urging more to get their shots.

Top government expert Dr NK Arora told NDTV that the record number of jabs administered on Friday were the result of "months of sustained efforts".

"We went from a few thousand to two crore vaccines doses administered in one day. Social mobilisation was key," Dr Arora said, as he praised the media for playing a role in the effort.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, Delhi) chief Dr Randeep Guleria told NDTV that it was imperative to sustain this surge in vaccination numbers. Over 12 million doses needed to be administered per day to reach the target of giving two doses to at least 60 per cent of the population by end December.

 Dr Guleria called on people - particularly those who have yet to get even one dose - to shed 'vaccine hesitancy' and get themselves inoculated.

In recent days, India has reported more than 10 million covid shots in a day on three occasions - September 6, August 31 and August 27.

 It took 85 days to touch the 100 million vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 200 million mark and 29 more days to reach the 300 million mark, according to the health ministry.

 Nationwide inoculations started in January, with healthcare and frontline workers the first to get the shots. The drive was extended to all adults from May.