 I am Dr. Prakash Nafralis from Manipal Hospital, Malaysia. It is very disheartening to see that the COVID numbers are slowly and gradually increasing in the country as well as in the individual states like in Karnataka too. And it is of importance to know that the COVID infection is coming back in a big bank and what was in the decreasing numbers up to November 25th is slowly picking up and then world over I think they are far, far ahead in the sense that the numbers of COVID infections are sky high. For example, the US started seeing almost 4.5 lakhs per day which increased almost 5.5 lakhs and now in a day just one or two days before 10 lakhs likewise in the Europe and UK also the numbers are going up. And as you all know by now that unfortunately we are seeing a newer variant of COVID in the form of Omicron which started in South Africa and slowly spread to different countries. And what is good to note about this Omicron is that it is a milder disease in the sense that the severity is not very much. However, it is very contagious or infectious and it spreads like mad. So that is the only problem with this Omicron otherwise the patients or citizens do not get that sick. So that is one good thing. Now coming back to the country we have almost seen almost around 90 to 95,000 per day in the last 48 hours or so. And if you had to talk about our own state Karnataka from November 25th or not November 25th maybe December 25th onwards which was almost just 250 and around 250 numbers per day is almost now slowly increasing and is increased to around 3500 in the last 24 hours. That is the scale of this newer variant of infection. We really do not know whether it is Omicron or whatever it is. We would be still dealing with the delta or what we feel the way it is increasing probably it is Omicron is what we are trying to think. And so it is very important for us to take equal and very good COVID appropriate behavior measures which is the mantra for this virus. Other than the vaccination other than the drugs this is very very important come whatever may more variants might come in the near future also what is important for us is to follow these COVID appropriate behaviors especially masking and trying to avoid crowd and then distancing. We have been time and again been telling about masking and which has been very very clearly demonstrated by various people various organizations the TV media but unfortunately that is not being followed at all and we could at any given point of time see people walking around without the mask or mask which is absolutely not at the appropriate place. So I think that is very very important and it is high time the citizens the residents of the country and state take this very very seriously and then follow these measures. At the same time we need to also do not get we do not need to get panicky about this virus because as I already said it is lesser severe one we are not really seen very sick patients in the ICU or in the wards requiring oxygen. So we need to be very cautious fortunately for us this time maybe this is the third way we can say and for us we should be grateful that the country is blessed with the vaccination drive which really really went very nicely in the country and almost 70 percent if I am not wrong 65 to 70 percent of the population have received two doses and more than 90 percent have received at least one dose of vaccination and if you have to take Karnataka I think probably we stand quite good in terms of vaccination which is almost 70 percent of the Karnatakaans have received the vaccine. So that is a good thing and immunity has developed within the community and more the number of affected people more is the herd immunity which can be there but at the same time we should not be embanking on this and trying to get exposed to the virus. So what is important is that we need to follow the time tested measures what you have been proclaiming from the time it started almost in 2020 March of 2020 and so it is very important for us to follow the measures laid down by the specialists of the country people who really look into this covid virus and its dissemination in the country so that is very important and the last thing I would like to say is the one should not be complacent and just sit and start moving around when they have some sort of viral fever symptoms in the form of say it could be just simple cough and cold fever body acne of that the best they can do is probably restrict themselves at home get themselves tested and then see if they have exposed anyone in the family or surrounding to see that they are checked and then get treated treatment may not be as what we had done in the second way wherein we had sicker patients so then most of them got admitted with this omicron we do not feel that it is going to be very severe so what we would suggest is that if you have any of the symptoms which all of you know the classical symptoms we should try to isolate ourselves and do not go out in the crowds if one is going to the office mall or any other common areas I think we should avoid that is that is one thing which we all should realize and other thing is you should not self-medicate get proper advice from your doctors and if in case your you have you have all the signs symptoms and signs of covid and then by now also it is very clear that we need to also keep checking our oxygenation most of the population now is aware as to how they need to evaluate themselves before they get into the hospital so they need to check their oxygen saturation as long as it is less than 90 more than 94 percent I do not think so and you need to worry so that is what is the come the advice or tips we can give so I would finally say that we need to be very aware of these things and then do not be panicky about this but at the same time not to be complacent