'I'm seeing many people who've had Covid for the second or even third time'

At the pandemic's peak, 60% of  GP Phil Kieran's patients had Covid. Now it's down to 10%. But with cases still high in the community, he asks if was right to remove all restrictions

Dr Phil Kieran says he expects to wear a mask at work for the rest of his career. Picture: Dan Linehan

Covid is finished. No need to worry about it or to focus on respiratory hygiene anymore. None of this irritating mask-wearing and we can all move on with our lives... This is what I hoped we would be saying in March of this year and for a while it looked like that might happen. However, it has not fully turned out that way, has it?

The HSE stats show declining numbers of positive cases, and the numbers in hospitals and ICUs seem reassuringly stable. But most of us have noticed an increase in people with coughs and colds and runny noses and, yes, with positive Covid results over the past month.