New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said it seems that the government is stumbling again on the Covid vaccination programme and its "failures", including not permitting booster shots, will cause "immense harm" to the people.

The Congress has been critical of the government's vaccine strategy and has demanded that vaccinations be speeded up and booster shots be provided to prevent another wave of coronavirus.

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It seems that the government is stumbling again on the vaccination programme, Chidambaram said.

The original decision to prescribe a gap of 12-16 weeks between the first and second dose of vaccination was wrong, he said.

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It was taken obviously because there was a shortage of supply, the former Union minister added.

"That decision prevails today even after we have millions of doses lying unutilised. The decision to maintain the earlier wrong decision is doubly wrong," Chidambaram said.

The inability of the government to increase the percentage of the adult population that has received the second dose (currently 50 percent) is another grave failure, he said.

The third "wrong" is not to permit a booster shot for those who are vulnerable like frontline health personnel, Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.

Taken together, these three "grave failures" will cause immense harm to the people, he said.

There are growing concerns over the spread of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in the country.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)