Third Wave Of COVID-19 In India A Possibility, Warns AIIMS Chief

New Delhi: India may see a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic if the virus continues to evolve further and develops an immune escape mechanism, the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr Randeep Guleria, warned on Tuesday.

“One has two understand a few things. How quickly can we vaccinate individuals to give them immunity? And second is how does the virus change? If the virus evolves further and it develops an immune escape mechanism, i.e., the immunity that people have developed becomes less effective and you can get the infection again, then there is a chance that we may see a third wave of the pandemic,” Guleria was quoted as saying by India Today.

He also rejected the night curfews and weekend shutdowns that some states have imposed to bring down COVID-19 cases, saying they hardly work.

Asked about the COVID-19 emergency in India that has overwhelmed hospitals and caused a crisis of resources, Guleria said, “Three things need to be looked at here. The first is improving the hospital infrastructure. The second is decreasing the number of cases in an aggressive way and the third, rolling out of vaccines. We have to break the chain of transmission. If we decrease the close contact between humans, there is a possibility that the cases will come down.”

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