Chennai: Waning immunity, the emergence of a more transmissible coronavirus variant capable of escaping the immunity shield and lockdown relaxations can be the likely causes of a possible third wave of Covid-19, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria has said.
He said several studies and modelling have been conducted to project the trajectory of a possible third wave of the pandemic under different scenarios.
“One such model from an IIT shows that if all restrictions are lifted and if a virus (variant) is also able to escape immunity then the next wave can be bigger than the second wave. If some restrictions are kept and the virus also remains stable then cases will not be much and if we keep more restrictions then cases will further reduce,” he said.
Meanwhile, hours after the World Health Organisation announced that the world was already in the early stages of the third wave of Covid-19, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has projected that the third wave is likely to hit India by the end of August.
It is likely that India will see almost 1 lakh cases every single day with the onset of the third wave of the viral infection in August, ‘sometime towards the end’, a senior scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said.