Government warns: vaccines will not be available to everyone at once

The government on Thursday adopted a resolution on Finland’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy, the key content of which was outlined in negotiations last week.

According to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland’s objective is to protect the entire population once an authorized vaccine is available.

But the government has already assumed that initially there will not be enough vaccines for everyone. Therefore, it will offered to different groups of people at different stages.

Vaccination will be offered free of charged based on a medical risk assessment. In the initial phase, the vaccine will be offered to healthcare and social welfare workers caring for Covid-19 patients and to care home workers, elderly persons and persons at high risk for severe disease due to underlying health conditions.

"The practical arrangements for vaccination must take into account the possibility that a Covid-19 vaccine will not be available to everyone at once. According to an estimate by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the first vaccines will arrive in Finland at the beginning of 2021. Once they have arrived, the vaccination process will begin as soon as possible," the ministry led by Aino-Kaisa Pekonen said in a press release.

Vaccination of children will become topical once the target group studies are complete. 

Municipalities to organize vaccination

The practical arrangements for vaccination will be coordinated by hospital districts. Municipalities are responsible for organizing vaccination in their areas.

Finland is taking part in the European Union’s joint vaccine procurement, which guarantees access to coronavirus vaccines from several manufacturers. The European Commission has negotiated agreements on six different vaccines and Finland is a party to all six agreements.

However, the final decisions on vaccination cannot be made until the vaccines have been authorized and are available. The Government will decide on the implementation of vaccinations by adopting a decree in accordance with the Communicable Diseases Act once the vaccines to be used have been confirmed.

9 more deaths reported

Meanwhile, the number of infections and deaths linked to the Covid-19 virus continues to rise.

The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) reported Thursday 9 deaths and 840 new infections in the last 48 hours. To date, Finland has diagnosed 29,572 cases of infections and 442 deaths from the disease have been recorded in the Nordic country.

Most of these deaths (330) have occurred in the Helsinki-Uusimaa area, the capital region, the epicenter and the area hardest hit by the epidemic.

According to THL, Finland has 244 people admitted to hospitals due to complications related to Covid-19, of which 25 are in intensive care units.