Helsinki begins vaccinating 85+ people

The City of Helsinki on Monday began the process of vaccinating persons who will turn 85 this year or are already older as well as their informal carers, said a press release.

More than 4,000 vaccination appointments have been booked. There are about 14,000 Helsinki residents aged 85 and above. Some 3,000 of them have already been vaccinated, mostly during the vaccination of care home and sheltered housing residents.

This week, Helsinki will be receiving about 6,000 vaccine doses. Most of them will be used as booster shots. Roughly 2,500 vaccines are available for vaccinating elderly persons during this week.

The vaccination appointments for the week are already fully booked, but appointments for the following weeks can be made.

Slightly more than half of Helsinki’s health care workers who engage in coronavirus-related work have received the first vaccine dose.

The process of vaccinating the personnel of care services, home care and home hospitals is also under way.

All 24-hours care residents who have wanted to get vaccinated have been administered the first vaccine dose. At the end of last week, the vaccine was offered to a few hundred persons aged 85 and above through home care services and at vaccination points arranged by the city.

Persons between the ages of 80 and 84 and their informal carers are next in line to receive the vaccine.

According to the current estimate, they will be invited to get vaccinated in the third week of February, if the AstraZeneca vaccines are deemed suitable for elderly people on a national level.

At the moment, Helsinki is prepared to administer vaccines to 30,000 people a week.

About 4,000–6,000 vaccines per week have been received, most of which have been used as booster vaccines.

Helsinki initiated the vaccination process on 28 December 2020, immediately after vaccines became available on 27 December.