COVID-19: AIIMS doctor says another wave unlikely if large population already infected

AIIMS Doctor and Epidemiologist Dr Sanjay K Rai on Friday said that another massive wave of COVID-19 is unlikely if a large population has already been infected by the Coronavirus. He was responding to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) warning of a new COVID-19 wave as the world body said that there could be a wave in Europe and Central Asia. The WHO also predicted that the region will see more than 5,00,000 deaths by February 2022.

Dr Rai told ANI, "When large populations get infected, massive waves of the virus are unlikely. Natural infections lead to natural immunity which leads to a decline in the number of cases. Vaccinations also reduce disease severity and deaths. It will happen in Russia and Central Asia. A wave of infections is going on there, but this will reduce by February. This happened everywhere, including in India. A large amount of the population was infected, then cases started to decline rapidly. Whenever the cases rise rapidly, they decline quickly too.”

Weakening credibility of the WHO

He also said that these regions are unlikely to cross the mark of 5,00,000 deaths by February and said that the high rate of vaccinations will bring down the number of deaths if not the number of cases. He further said that the WHO was losing its credibility on the global stage. Dr Rai added, "It has been giving controversial statements. It has not been able to figure out the origins of COVID-19. It took them over 1.5 years to understand that natural infections are giving protection to the people but they are still not giving much weightage to it."

As the daily cases are rising in the European and Central Asian countries, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the world on Thursday and said the cases and deaths could explode any time. As per the WHO, all the nations in Europe and Central Asia are facing a real threat of COVID-19 resurgence.

(With ANI inputs)