AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria has said the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may hit India in the next six to eight weeks. He made the remark at a time when several states are waithdrawing strict COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions following a decline in cases in recent days.

 "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. But it could happen within the next six to eight weeks... may be a little longer," Dr Guleria, who heads the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India's premier research and referral hospital in New Delhi, told NDTV.

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

India is just about getting over a deadly second wave of the pandemic that killed thousands. 

During this phase, people were seen struggling to get a hospital bed or even oxygen supply due to the significant rise in infection cases since early this year.

The burial grounds and crematoriums were also overwhelmed amid a rise in deaths due to COVID-19.

However, the number of cases have reduced in recent days. (SAM)