A leading member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has said she expects Ireland to come out of restrictions "reasonably quickly".
The team is set to meet on Thursday evening to analyse the latest Covid data as hopes grow that Ireland has gotten past the peak of the Omicron surge.
Case numbers have fallen in recent days, while hospitals and ICUs are under less pressure with numbers stabilising.
Dr Mary Favier, the Covid adviser to the Irish College of General Practitioners, is a member of NPHET, and she told RTE Morning Ireland that there was a "very significant difference" between the situation now and the situation when the latest round of rules were introduced.
"GPs were overwhelmed in between Christmas and New Year, but as of yesterday it's become very manageable for GPs and we are optimistic we can get back to non-Covid work in the near future. There are very few people needing to be admitted to hospital - that's attributable to vaccines alongside the knowledge of Omicron that we now have. It is such welcome news."
Dr Favier defended the decision of the health officials to bring in the likes of the 8pm curfew and a cap on sporting events just before Christmas.
She said: "Restrictions were appropriate at the time because we were unsure of Omicron. Now that we know more about it, we know it's transmissible and extraordinarily so. However, many people are less sick when with this variant.
"We need to look at the balance of what the role of restrictions are and what the negative aspects of them are. We know that hospitals are under pressure keeping up with non-Covid illnesses. GP's will be looking at the possibility of our surgeries changing - will people be able to sit in the surgeries instead of their cars, will we need to distance them? Do we need to have the same restrictions in nursing homes, day care centres? GP's see the impact they've had on mental health and physical health.
Dr Favier finished with a note of hope ahead of a key meeting of NPHET on Thursday.
She said: "We need to get back to our lives, it's so important and people have put down an extraordinary two years.. It'll be more weeks than months. We need to rediscover who we are and how we live our lives.
"Those who are Covid-phobic will need to take it slowly, but we should be able to come out restrictions reasonably quickly."
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