“The era of major restrictions is coming to an end in that COVID will be around for the long term, but it will be a disease that like a bad flu, we’ll need to manage,” said IHME director Dr.

“We expect after the omicron wave, a period of low transmission of COVID,” said Murray.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the IHME has been a go-to source for predicting how the virus will behave.

The omicron variant prompted a return to medical masks for many, and it will be the dominant strain going forward, but it’s proven to be less lethal, and its wave could die down in weeks, the IHME said.

“We will go into this period where the immunological exposure to COVID is so much higher, both from vaccination and infection, that we won’t see restrictions return, so I think we will go back to normal in the sense that we won’t have major restrictions on behavior,” said Murray.