Even amid warnings of another wave, most Irish people want to move on from the scourge that is Covid-19.
But for some who are battling what became known as Long Covid, their lives have been stuck in 2020.
They're battling symptoms that last months after infection has gone - yet the Government has yet to provide figures of how many are suffering this plight.
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But it has now emerged that 4,000 long Covid sufferers are in receipt of a disability payment from the Department of Social Protection because they are unable to return to work.
That's sparked fears that many of them have frontline health service jobs - and it's yet another way that the pandemic is weighing heavily on our hospitals.
And there are now calls for a system to measure long Covid numbers in a bid to get to grips with it.
Independent TD Denis Naughton said: "Government has yet to provide any figures on the incidence of long Covid.
"There is no doubt that these figures from the Department of Social Protection are indicative of a significant challenge that we are facing, particularly within our health service, to manage and treat the impacts associated with this condition.
“There was a sharp rise in the number of people in receipt of an illness payment experiencing Covid-19 in excess of 12 weeks over the winter period; the increase in numbers has now slowed but is still growing.
“As these figures are released, 180 frontline health staff who are out of work for months as a result of long Covid are facing into their first week without the financial support provided under the special sick pay scheme for Covid that finished on June 30.
“The special sick pay scheme leaves these 180 staff on traditional sick pay methods, where they can receive full sick pay for 12 weeks, then half pay for another 12 weeks, before relying on social welfare.
"But because it operates on a rolling basis and sick pay taken in the past four years will be subtracted from the allowance, some of these staff are now facing their first week on a welfare payment.”
Denis Naughten added: “The figures I have obtained from the Department of Social Protection are only indicative of a much higher rate of long Covid in the community, with many people ineligible for such a welfare payment or back in work but with the illness impacting on their productivity and daily lives.
“However, these long Covid claimants who have been deemed medically unfit to work are now making up between 8-10% of the total number of Illness Benefit claims, which shows the real impact this condition is having on people’s lives.
"If these figures are reflected across the population as a whole, then this will have a significant impact on our society as well as our hospital waiting lists.
“Despite these very worrying trends the HSE is only now ‘scoping out’ a patient registry for long Covid.
"So how can we manage this medical condition when we are not even measuring it?”
It is estimated that between 3% and 12% of people who catch Covid will still have symptoms 12 weeks after their initial infection.
But these estimates were made before Omicron became the dominant variant.
Because Omicron hasn’t been around for long enough, we don’t yet know whether it is more or less likely to result in long Covid.
And because more of the population are now fully vaccinated, it is also hard to tell whether any differences in long Covid rates are due to the differences between variants or because of the protective effects of vaccination.
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