The third wave of coronavirus is “inevitable” and it could hit the nation in the next six to eight weeks, AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria told ndtv.com on Saturday. As COVID-19 cases have started to fall, states have started slowly started to unlock after witnessing a peak in April-May.

The AIIMS chief said that India’s main challenge is to vaccinate the entire population and for that, the increased gaps between two doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccine might not be “a bad approach.”

“As we have started unlocking, there is again a lack of COVID-appropriate behaviour. We don’t seem to have learned from what happened between the first and the second wave,” Dr Randeep Guleria told NDTV.

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He further added, “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 Randeeep Guleria said that the third wave of the COVID-19 depends on how people “go ahead in terms of COVID-appropriate behaviour and preventing crowds.” 

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Talking about the new Delta-Plus variant, which has evolved from the Delta variant of the COVID-19, the AIIMS chief said told the news channel, “A new frontier will have to be developed in India’s fight against COVID to further study the mutation of the virus.”

The spread of the Delta-Plus variant has triggered fresh concerns in the nation about the pandemic and its treatment.

Currently, about 5% of the entire population of 130 crore people in India has received both doses of COVID-19 vaccines and the union government to vaccinate over 103 crore people by the end of this year.