There are few home Covid tests available in Finland, as grocery stores and pharmacies have underestimated people’s interest in self-scanning before the holidays.
It has been difficult to get fast homemade Covid-19 tests in the center of Helsinki. Yle’s test hunt this week showed that they were sold at Tokmanni, Yliopiston Apteek, Sokos S-Market, Postitalon K-Market and Aleksanterinkatu Alepa.
However, Yle managed to locate the test at K-Market in The Hague, where the staff encouraged them to stock up, as the tests have run out of K-Group’s stock.
The Association of Pharmacists has previously warned that pharmacies may run out of rapid tests before the end of the year as the epidemic accelerates and the government recommends home testing.
"This week, availability issues occurred. Test distributors are reaching their final inventory," said Charlotta Sandler, Director of Pharmaceutical Affairs of the Finnish Association of Pharmacists.
The Boson-branded test distributed by the Pamark Group in China is the best-selling antigen test in Finland.
This month, Pamark has imported three million sets of home tests. The company said it plans to fly a million tests before the year is over and that it plans to continue bringing in a million series every week in January.
Empty shelves have raised concerns about test teeth. But Minna Åman-Toivio, who leads Pamark, said the problem is more related to logistics than to the people who store the kits. According to Åman-Toivio, the journey from the fuselage of Finnair’s plane to the store’s shelf is not as straightforward as you think.
"A huge number of tests are broken down into hundreds of smaller deliveries that go through the logistics chain," he explained and added that this process includes customs clearance, warehousing, loading and unloading, and repackaging.
Since the start of the pandemic, the S Group’s dealers have sold 430,000 and the K Group’s 220,00 home tests. People have also bought 100,000 tests from pharmacies.
At the same time, demand is growing. Last week, the S Group said it had sold 73 per cent of the tests compared to the previous week, and according to the K-Group, the tests left the stores as soon as they arrived.
Source: The Nordic Page