Vaccination, surveillance, appropriate behaviour vital to avoid third wave of COVID-19 pandemic: Dr Guleria

AIIMS Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria has said that appropriate behaviour, good surveillance and vaccination are important to avoid the third wave of COVID-19 and noted that mutation of the virus is a matter of concern.

In an interview with ANI, Dr Guleria said that the cases have come down and the mistake of not strictly following COVID protocols, made after the first wave due to complacency, should not be repeated.

"The third wave is dependent on us. If we want to avoid it, we need to do three things aggressively follow COVID appropriate behaviour, we must have very good surveillance and aggressively push for vaccination. If we do these three things, we will be able to get away either not having a third wave or delaying it or it will have a very little peak," he said.

"If cases have come down, let us not make the same mistake which we made after the first wave. We thought that the virus has gone and now we can do anything. We must understand virus is still there and mutating. It is becoming more of a cause of concern," he added.

Dr Guleria said restrictions should be enforced in any area where there is a rise in cases. He also laid thrust on wearing a mask, keeping physical distance and washing hands.

"We cannot allow any variant to spread. In any area where cases are increasing, hospital admissions are going up, then the area must be clamped, to stop the spread of the virus we can have a very strict lockdown. There is need to do a lot of testing, tracking, treating and isolating positive cases," said Dr Guleria.

The AIIMS director said if a large number of people get vaccinated, they will get less severe disease in case of infection and vaccination also helps in breaking the chain of transmission.

( With inputs from ANI )

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