The end of the Covid pandemic may be in sight as a World Health Organisation expert, David Nabarro, said he believes the coronavirus will likely become like the common cold.
The government have said that current restrictions will begin to ease near the end of January as more evidence emerges about the severity of the Omicron variant.
Speaking to RTE's Brendan O'Connor, Immunology expert Dr Sam McConkey said he was 'delighted' to see Dr Nabarro's comments and said he agrees.
Asked if he thinks Ireland will be back to normality by March, Dr McConkey said things would be better, but it might be a 'new normal'.
He said: "Well, it depends what normality is. I don't think it will be 2019 normality.
"Certainly, those that work in hospitals are going to have to test everyone coming in and keep folk who have Covid separately from those who don't because people in hospitals who don't have Coivd are very vulnerable to getting it.
He added: "There may be some restrictions on wearing masks and some social distancing, so I think it will be a new normal as we have all famously said, but I'm hoping that a lot of the restrictions like the eight o'clock closures of hospitality will finish.
"I'm hoping there will be, certainly, widespread outdoor music festivals in the summer Brendan, which obviously a lot of us would look forward to. So I think there will be a lot of the things we really value and cherish back to normal but still some adaptations."
Dr McConkey explained Dr Nabrros predictions about the virus and said we would unlikely experience another devastating wave in the pandemic.
He said: "What he's really saying is obviously we're going through an Omicron fifth wave if you like right now and what he's really saying is what are the future of Covid going to be like.
"We've talked about it becoming endemic, you know, sort of like the common cold or like the flu and look forward to when that will happen. He's saying that he doesn't expect another horrible alpha wave or delta wave to sweep through countries like Ireland, where we're heavily vaccinated.
"He does point out that maybe Ireland is a bit unique in the way we've dealt with it and we have very high levels of vaccination and that combined with the large amount of infection with Omicron that we have seen in Ireland will hopefully protect us from whatever comes in the future."
