India administers record 22m vaccine jabs for PM's birthday

India on Friday made a record 22 million coronavirus vaccine jabs in a day, as part of a special vaccination drive for the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Authorities set up special vaccination centres in stadiums, shopping malls, clinics and other venues as it sought to boost the lagging campaign to inoculate 1.1 billion people by the end of the year.

The previous daily best was 14 million in August.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said: "It's a gift from the health workers and citizens to the prime minister” as more than 20 million daily jabs were reached for the first time on Modi's 71st birthday.

Modi tweeted that all Indians should be "proud" of the record.

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.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 17, 2021

Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, normally inoculates about 1.5 million people a day.

"I am anticipating that we might cross 2.5 million vaccinations today [Friday]," state immunisation officer Ajay Ghai told AFP.

Launched in January, the vaccination campaign was slow to take off because of shortages and hesitancy among the population.

It has picked up in recent weeks, reaching between five million and eight million on average each day.

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About 788 million vaccine doses have now been given, but the number of eligible people with two doses is still below 20%. 

The government was particularly stung by criticism after a brutal coronavirus wave in April and May killed more than 200,000 people.

Daily infections and deaths have fallen dramatically since the surge and many restrictions on movement have been ended, but authorities fear a new wave as the end of year festival season gets underway.

The country has so far recorded 437,370 deaths and more than 32 million infections -- with 34,000 cases and 320 deaths reported Friday -- the second-highest in the world after the United States.