Germany gives over a million virus jabs in a day

Germany gave the coronavirus vaccine to 1.1 million people in a day, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Thursday, a new daily record for a European country in a massive ramp up of the inoculation campaign.

With 1.089 million jabs into the arms of Germans on Wednesday, Europe's biggest economy for the first time vaccinated more than one percent of its population in 24 hours, Spahn said.

"That shows how much speed we've gained," he said of the accelerated inoculation pace after a stuttering start of the campaign late last year.

Only China, India and the United States have so far been able to top that daily inoculation rate.

In Europe, Britain had previously held the highest number of jabs in 24 hours—with 874,000 doses given on March 20.

In all, 21.6 million people or 25.9 percent of the population in Germany have received at least one dose of the vaccine.