An immunology expert has pointed to a "forgotten" group of people in the removal of nearly all restrictions that "could die".
In an historic address to the nation, Taoiseach Micheal Martin announced the removal of nearly all Covid measures on Friday night, which included dropping domestic use of Covid Certs.
The public were shocked by the sudden change in approach to the pandemic which allows nightclubs to open this weekend.
Professor Kingston Mills, an expert in immunology at Trinity college, said he was "surprised" at the pace the Government rolled back restrictions and pointed to one group that were "forgotten".
He said: "I am a little surprised at the pace at which these restrictions have been eased - in particular around the Covid Certs. We do know that vaccines are less effective against Omicron but three doses of the vaccines are quite effective."
"There are also the people who have underlying health conditions who might not respond so well to the vaccines and have been in the fear of their lives the last two years - being cocooned. These are sort of the forgotten people in the latest measures."
By the Trinity Professor's "rough" estimations, half the population have probably been infected.
He said: "I estimate that roughly half the population has been infected in Ireland but the other half haven't. Some of them will have benefits from vaccinations but others won't.
"They are still at risk of getting infected and they could end up in hospital and if they have underlying health conditions, they could die from this."
Prof Mills also warned new variants will emerge and pointed out there is currently a new strain that is under investigation from the WHO.
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