The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has recommended Covid vaccinations for children aged 12–15 years.
On Thursday, the National Board of Health announced the epidemic situation in Finland at a joint press conference alongside the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
According to the THL, vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds are scheduled to begin in August.
Finland’s future supply of Covid vaccines currently looks good, Mia KontioA vaccine expert from the National Institute of Health said at a press conference that the country had received a total of about 9.5 million doses of vaccine by the end of the year.
Finnish healthcare workers currently give about 70,000 doses of Covid per day.
On Thursday, about 56.3 percent of the country’s population had received at least one vaccine in two doses. By early July, Kontio said 80 percent of residents over the age of 16 had received the first dose.
"This is good news," he said at a news conference on Thursday.
At the same time, 87 percent of the population over the age of 50 has received the first dose.
Positive outlook before Midsummer
Liisa-Maria Voipio-PulkkiThe Director of Strategic Affairs of the Ministry generally described the epidemic situation in Finland as optimistic in the run-up to the Midsummer weekend. He said that very few new cases of Covid were diagnosed in a large part of the country, and noted that half of the cases were detected in the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS), the second highest number in the Pirkanmaa region.
New incidence and incidence rates have fallen over the past two weeks, and the need for hospitalization for the disease has also decreased significantly, Voipio-Pulkki noted that no new patients had been admitted to intensive care units across the country recently. 24 hours.
According to the latest THL figures, the prevalence of Covid-19 in Finland was 20 per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks.
Returnees from football
It was reported on Thursday that dozens of coronavirus infections were detected from individuals who arrived from Russia to the Vaalimaa border earlier this week. In the south-eastern part of Kymenlaakso, where Vaalimaa is located, a total of 60 cases have been detected in the last two days.
The news came after queues at the Vaalimaa intersection on Tuesday forced authorities to allow 800 passengers to Finland without tests. The power came when hundreds of football fans came home after watching Finland play Belgium in the European Championship finals in St. Petersburg.
THL doctor at a press conference on Thursday Otto Helve said many other Covid tests for returnees were still pending.
"The overall picture is not yet in place, but it will be strengthened in the coming days," Helve said.
Voipio-Pulkki said the Russian border incident was exceptional and the decision to allow passengers to enter without testing could be a mistake of judgment, noting that the number of staff at the border was generally adequate.
Small variables
Helve pointed out that the number of new cases of the Covid variant Delta, formerly called the Indian-derived variant, has increased in Finland. However, the figures are still quite small
A total of 9,081 Covid variants have been reported in Finland:
- B.1.1.7 Alpha (former version from Great Britain): 7,374
- B.1.351 Beta (former version from South Africa): 1402
- P.1 Gamma (former version from Brazil):
- B.1.617.2 Delta (formerly variant from India): 300
Halve said that as vaccination rates increase in areas of the world where infections are high, concerns about variants, on the contrary, decrease.
Source: The Nordic Page