So what is going on?

Anecdotally, plans are being put on hold, with the Chemical Brothers cancelling their gig in Musgrave Park, Cork Midsummer Festival, the Abbey Theatre, and the National Concert Hall cancelling events, and Aer Lingus cancelling flights — all due to staff or performers being ill.

One reason for all this was identified in a study indicating people infected with Omicron are less protected from repeat infections.

This new study led by Imperial College London found that Omicron does not offer the same level of natural immunity which infection with older variants offered.

“Getting infected with Omicron does not provide a potent boost to immunity against re-infection with Omicron in the future,” lead author Professor Rosemary Boyton said.

“Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection impacts on the ability to boost immunity against subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection through a process called ‘immune imprinting’, and this may apply to sub-variants of Omicron including BA.4 and BA.5.”

The study, published in the journal Science in June, found poorer recognition of Omicron spike antigen by T-cells in those who had been Omicron infected.

Co-author Prof Danny Altmann described Omicron as a “stealthy immune evader”.

“Not only can it break through vaccine defences, it looks to leave very few of the hallmarks we’d expect on the immune system,” he said. 

It’s more stealthy than previous variants and flies under the radar, so the immune system is unable to remember it. 

This is not good news for the thousands in Ireland infected since January who have been blithely going about their business thinking at least one benefit of getting Covid is protection for a few months afterwards.

Unfortunately, those study findings are being borne out in real life.

Prof Seamus Linnane runs long Covid clinics at the Beacon Hospital, and he said he is treating people who had Covid infections as many as four times now.

Worryingly, a pre-print study led by the Washington University School of Medicine found the more often someone is infected, the higher their risk of severe symptoms and of developing long Covid.

Analysing data from over 5m people through the US Department of Veterans Affairs, they found risks increase “in a graded fashion” as people become re-infected.

“That is, risks were lowest in people with one infection, increased in people with two infections, and highest in people with three or more infections,” the study found.

Prof Linnane described it as “rolling the dice” every time you get sick. 

This evolving knowledge is why there have been calls for the return of mask-wearing here in some situations like buses and trains.

A fourth round of vaccines for everyone is now likely in the autumn, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this week.

In Germany, masks are still required for local and long-distance public transport, and the government is considering wider use for the winter.

Spanish officials — including the mayor of Malaga who himself tested positive last week — have said they cannot rule out the return of mask-wearing.

In Ireland unfortunately we can see hospital figures reflecting people’s sense there is more Covid-19 around. The highest spike so far this year was 1,624 at the end of March.

Hospital workers probably heaved a sigh of relief when the numbers turned, reaching 167 by the end of May. However this soon turned again and is still rising, reaching 885 on Monday. 

We know up to half of these were hospitalised initially with a different illness, but we do not know if Covid-19 made these underlying conditions worse.

Either way, it is still increasing pressures on hospitals because, as we have learned, the virus is infectious, whether it is symptomatic or not.

Across intensive care units, the picture is also changing. These numbers thankfully remain well down on last year and 2020, but there were still 33 people in ICUs on Monday, July 4, up from 18 at the start of June.

Two in five people now believe the pandemic will never be fully over, new research carried out by Ipsos for the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association found, but 10% believe it has already ended.

Only time will tell who is right. For now, it seems that while we are very much tired of Covid-19, it is not tired of us yet.