Talk of pandemic being over is 'premature', warns virologist

Dr Gerald Barry of UCD said there were still 'massive levels of infection in the country'. File picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

A leading virologist has said that while “a wall of immunity” had been built up in Ireland due to the vaccination programme and the high levels of infection, talk of the pandemic being over was “premature”.

Assistant professor of virology at UCD Dr Gerald Barry said the virus would continue to affect people going forward.

"It is still making people sick, maybe not putting them in hospital but still making people sick. 

"It will still kill people, but I think in a way we have accepted with other diseases that a certain percentage of people that are going to get infected will die," he said. 

Dr Barry said this wall of immunity had allowed the country's hospital system to remain stable, even as case numbers increased rapidly around the beginning of 2022.

"The number of hospitalisations remains relatively stable and ultimately, we saw that our health system wasn't going to get overwhelmed. That evidence is quite clear," he told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.

"I think there was a big fear about Omicron, and that fear in terms of infections played out; we got massive numbers of infections, but our hospital system didn't get overwhelmed.

"We didn't know that three or four weeks ago as well. So we had to be a little bit cautious coming into that huge wave that we saw.” 

Dr Barry said that on one hand, he was excited to inform people that restrictions were being lifted, but on the other, he was conscious there were still many people in the population who would be at an increased risk of infection.

There are still massive levels of infection in the country. We don't really know how many people are being infected every day. We've lost complete sight of numbers of infections in the country.

"But restrictions are very unnatural, they’re not the way we’re supposed to be living," he said.

"We need to make hay while the sun shines and lift restrictions while we can. Things are getting better, but the virus has by no means gone away."