to be a major challenge we can see the same in our daily lives we are almost back to the pre pandemic times with opening up of schools and restaurants and public places in majority of the countries now the restrictions are name sake though new covid case numbers are still giving us the hint that its far from over with the newer variants but still the fact is that its no more a rapidly spreading disease which sweeps across the nations the assumption is that the most infectious variant that is the omicron variant has already been there and now the circulating variants are less likely to produce a more infectious variant to glide across the globe the hybrid immunity the masses have due to vaccination and prior infection also adds to the beginning of the end hence who rightly said that the end is at sightdr viswesvaran balasubramanian consultant interventional pulmonology and sleep medicine yashoda hospitals hyderabadcovid 19 pandemic has been quite devastating worldwide with a fatality of almost 65 million people globally however recently we are seeing a decrease in the number of active covid 19 infections worldwide these numbers may not reflect a true incidence as there has been a general trend of decrease in active screening of patients for covid 19 infection especially in the current scenario of increased respiratory infections secondary to flu in addition the rapid kits used for immediate testing is not the gold standard diagnostic modality and may miss few active infectionsparticularly in india though the active covid 19 cases are on decline we are seeing random spurts of covid 19 infection in isolation or with seasonal flu and in certain high risk patients it is associated with significant morbidity and mortality we have seen the emergence of mutant strains in the past as well with delta and omicron variant being the most commonly involved though we wish we dont see reemergence of further mutant variants it seems a realistic possibility in future as well with prior data as with all pandemics the virus continues to persist and it is just that the current mutation variants are not associated with serious forms of infection in relatively healthy population with the acceptance of social pandemic norms and active screening of covid 19 infections in patients with upper respiratory tract infections on the decline there is a significant possibility that we may see further mutants in near future as seen with influenza pandemic vaccination usage of masks and avoidance of social gathering amongst patients with high risk factors like underlying diabetes chronic kidney or heart ailments and those with low underlying immune status can mitigate the severity early reporting and active screening of patients with respiratory symptoms should continue to persist as this may help identifying the spurt early and can ensure proper timely mitigation measures