00:00So as COVID rears his head again, unfortunately there has been an uptake in the number of samples
00:06and the number of requests that we are receiving. But it's very important to understand that although
00:11it feels like deja vu, but this time we are better prepared, more informed and also backed with very
00:17robust surveillance tools and with the scientific tests that we have with us. I think we are in a
00:24good place from a preparedness perspective to face this effectively and also minimize any kind of
00:31damage that the current wave is causing. Now firstly, we must understand that the current variants that
00:38are circulating are again a sub-lineage of the Omicron virus, that is the BA.286 sub-variant that
00:47it had. Now also additionally in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, we have had certain other variants
00:54sub-variants as well that have been named as variants under monitoring. And these are basically
01:03of two types, that is LF7 and also NB181. Now currently the cases that we are seeing are more
01:12transmissible, as in they can infect people much easily. But again, from a severity perspective,
01:18thankfully till now we haven't seen very severe cases. All of these are actually presenting as
01:25common colds and flus and the usual symptoms that we have in any kind of a common cold, even
01:31hospitalizations have been minimal. What has essentially happened is that whenever there is an RNA virus like
01:39the COVID virus and it replicates, it undergoes some mutations. These mutations essentially in these
01:45particular variants that we are seeing are happening in the spike proteins. Now when these mutations
01:52are happening in these spike proteins, the transmissibility is increasing, but thankfully the severity is not
01:58increasing. But of course the virus does mutate to get stronger, but we have to evolve so that we can outsmart it.
02:06We have to evolve so that we can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it.
02:13We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it.
02:17We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it. We can outsmart it.
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