New variant serious threat, govt should provide vaccine security to countrymen: Rahul

Rahul Gandhi questioned the government's vaccination coverage numbers, saying, "Bad vaccination figures can't be hidden for long behind one man's photo."

New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Saturday expressed concern over the emergence of a new coronavirus variant and asked the government to provide vaccine security to the people of the country.

His remarks come amid rising global concerns over the new strain of the deadly virus that has been named ‘Omicron' by the World Health Organization and classified as a variant of concern.

"New variant is a serious threat. High time GOI (government of India) gets serious about providing vaccine security to our countrymen," Gandhi tweeted using the hashtag #Omicron.

He also questioned the government's vaccination coverage numbers, saying, "Bad vaccination figures can't be hidden for long behind one man's photo."

The country's Covid vaccination certificates contain a photo of the prime minister.

Gandhi also shared a chart titled "India's Vaccination Equation". According to the chart, 31.19 percent population of the country has been fully vaccinated now.

It claimed that 6.8 million vaccinations per day was recorded in the country during the last week against the required 23.3 million per day for the entire eligible population to be inoculated by December-end.

During the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed about the new variant of the coronavirus along with its characteristics and the impact seen in various countries, the PMO said.

The PM asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in light of the "emerging new evidence".

PTI