New Delhi: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday expressed concern over the detection of a new coronavirus variant and urged the Modi government to provide vaccine security to the people of the country.

His remarks come in the wake of rising global concern over the emergence of a new variant of coronavirus - the Omicron which has already been categorised as 'variant of concern' by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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

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

Along with the tweet Gandhi also shared a chart titled "India's Vaccination Equation". As per the chart, only 31.19 percent population of the country has been fully inoculated till now.

The figures in the chart claimed that 6.8 million vaccinations per day were recorded in the country during the last week against the required 23.3 million per day for the entire eligible population to be fully vaccinated by December-end.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday briefed about the new 'Omicron' variant along with its characteristics and the impact seen in various countries, the PMO said.

Modi asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in the view of "emerging new evidence".

With PTI Inputs

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