Professor Luke O'Neill has said "all of the evidence points to" the Covid-19 pandemic coming to an end in Ireland.
The immunologist said Covid-19 is effectively turning into the flu, and Omicron has caused 50% less hospitalisations than Delta.
Reported infections of the virus have dropped from record numbers earlier this month, with 12,138 cases recorded yesterday.
Speaking on Newstalk on Thursday, Prof O'Neill said Ireland is doing "so well" in battling Covid-19 at the moment.
He said: "We will now have an endemic virus, so the pandemic is effectively coming to an end.
"We're getting very close to calling that especially in Europe and in Ireland, we're doing so well.
"Omicron means cases are still very high, in Germany for instance there's massive case numbers but that wave will pass.
"Once that wave passes, the pandemic has effectively come to an end and the virus becomes endemic which means it comes back now and again."
Prof O'Neill said that vaccines and the new antiviral drugs that are becoming available will make Covid-19 "less dangerous than flu".
"Of course we don't full know, we always say that with caveats don't we, but all the signs are that it's coming to an end," he added.
"It's now like the flu, effectively. The reason for that is, Omicron has 50% less hospitalisations than Delta and 90% less death.
"When you have the vaccine and the antiviral, that's less dangerous than flu. We're now seeing it as a bad flu season every so often might crop up and that will be caused by Covid-19 rather than flu."
He said "all of the evidence" points to the pandemic coming to an end in Ireland.
"Every country in a way is saying we're now moving out of the pandemic phase in the coming weeks," he concluded.
"Of course the developing world is different.
"Some countries are still doing very badly so the pandemic hasn't ended globally.
"But certainly in Ireland we're coming to an end of the pandemic is the way to think of it. All of the evidence points to that."
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