Covering and 2-degree-packing numbers in graphs

In this paper, we give a relationship between the covering number of a simple graph $G$, $\beta(G)$, and a new parameter associated to $G$ which is called 2-degree-packing number of $G$, $\nu_2(G)$. We prove that$$\lceil \nu_{2}(G)/2\rceil\leq\beta(G)\leq\nu_2(G)-1,$$ for any connected simple graph $G$, with $|E(G)|>\nu_2(G)$, and we give a characterization of simple connected graphs which attains the inequalities.