All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria has warned of a third COVID-19 wave in India if the virus continues to evolve further and develops an immune escape mechanism.

Speaking to India Today TV on Tuesday, Dr Guleria further rejected the night curfews and weekend lockdowns that a few states have imposed to bring down the COVID-19 surge.
“They hardly work,” he said.

However, when asked about nationwide lockdown as the cases continue to rise, Dr Guleria said “a lockdown for a sufficient duration is needed to cut virus transmission”.

“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,” India Today reported quoting Dr Guleria.

“If we talk about the lockdown, it has to be for a sufficient duration of at least two weeks. It has to be aggressive. There’s no point in having a weekend lockdown or a night curfew,” he said.

He further said that the country will possibly witness another wave but as a large number of people will get vaccinated, hence it won’t be as big as the present wave.

“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,” India Today further reported quoting the AIIMS director.