More than 1,000 doctors and scientists wrote a letter calling on the government to change its current strategy.
The country's on track for a second Covid-19 surge, which may happen in the next few weeks.
That's according to a leading immunology expert, after more than 1,000 leading doctors and scientists wrote a letter, calling on the government to change its current strategy on dealing with the virus.
The open letter says we have come to a watershed moment, a fork in our road.
Our current policy is to live with the virus under long-term mitigation, with the risk of surges and lock-downs until there's a vaccine, but they say We have another option: choose to eliminate this virus.
One of those behind the letter, Dr. Tomas Ryan, assistant professor at the school of biochemistry and immunology at Trinity, says we're moving too quickly:
"We are on path for a second surge and that second surge may happen in mid-summer or it may happen in the autumn.
"That will lead to another lockdown and we won't have herd immunity in Ireland unless we suffer 4 to 7 or maybe more of these lockdowns. That's what we want to avoid".
They want widespread use of masks, a widespread campaign on how to wear them, and faster contact tracing and testing, including at airports.
Dr. Ryan added that Ireland could be like South Korea:
"If we had a test trace isolate infrastructure that works, that would mean we would keep it like South Korea. We would live with the virus, no new lockdowns."
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan is defending the current strategy:
"We have the number of cases down to a very low level and if we can get this down to zero cases a day then we'll be very happy".
"We have to strike a balance. we cannot stay with the restricted measures that we have in place across society for any longer."
The letter says if we all work together on this island we could halt the virus like New Zealand, Australia, China and Iceland.
