New Delhi: A third COVID wave in India is “inevitable”, and it could hit the country in the next six to eight weeks, AIIMS Chief Dr. Randeep Guleria told yesterday amid unlocking in parts of the country after weeks of strict restrictions. 

The country’s main challenge is vaccinating a huge population and the increase in dose gaps for Covishield “may not be a bad” approach to provide protection to cover more people, he explained.

A new frontier will have to be developed in India’s fight against COVID to further study the mutation of the virus, Dr. Guleria stressed, as he talked about the new Delta-plus variant, which has evolved from the Delta variant of COVID-19, triggering fresh concerns about monoclonal antibody treatment.

“As we have started unlocking, there is again a lack of COVID-appropriate behaviour. We don’t seem to have learnt from what happened between the first and the second wave. Again crowds are building up… people are gathering. It will take some time for the number of cases to start rising at the national level. Third wave is inevitable and it could hit the country within the next six to eight weeks… may be a little longer,” Dr. Guleria said. 

“It all depends on how we go ahead in terms of COVID-appropriate behaviour and preventing crowds,” he added.