Terveystalo, one of Finland’s private healthcare providers, announced on Wednesday that the company has agreed with the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) to launch coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) sampling campaign as of Thursday 12 March 2020.
The company said in a press release that “through the measure, Terveystalo will increase nationwide sampling capacity, which will ease the pressure of testing in Finland. Testing will begin first at Terveystalo's Helsinki Alppikatu site, where sampling will take place at a separate outdoor test point.”
Petri Bono, Chief Medical Officer of Terveystalo said that “by launching coronavirus testing, we at Terveystalo want to respond to our customers' desire to enable testing by qualified individuals, as well as relieve the pressure on public healthcare. We want to speed up the process of finding and deciding on coronavirus infections. Possible quarantine to slow down the widespread spread of the virus and stop the chains of infection in Finland.”
Not covered by Kela
Maybe the intention was good. However, if you want to do this private coronavirus test you should think twice because the price of private testing is 195 euros. And the Finnish Social Security Institution (Kela) does not cover the laboratory test.
Käynnistämme koronavirustestauksen 12.3. alkaen. Erillinen testauspiste avataan Helsinkiin Alppikadun toimipaikan yhteyteen. Testauspisteitä on tulossa myös muihin kaupunkeihin. Testaukseen pääsee ainoastaan etälääkärin vastaanoton kautta. Lue lisää ➡️ https://t.co/V9PVfrp8VM pic.twitter.com/f8WBi8PjII
— Terveystalo (@Terveystalo) March 11, 2020
Still, paying the 195 euros is not enough for Covid-19 testing. According to the firm, only people who have been identified as possible carriers of the virus by an official infectious physician will have their samples taken in Terveystalo.
