Healthcare, welfare workers to get Covid-19 vaccine first

The healthcare and social welfare workers, people above 70 years, and persons at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease are on the priority list to get the coronavirus vaccines, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

The government on Tuesday issued a decree on vaccinations to deploy the COVID-19 vaccination programme in Finland, said a press release.

The programme will use vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 that have been granted marketing authorisation in the European Union. It will be deployed once vaccines arrive in Finland. The decree will enter into force on 23 December.

Municipalities are responsible for organising the vaccinations. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is responsible for delivering the vaccines to the municipalities and for providing them with expert assistance.

The healthcare and social welfare workers who examine or directly treat and care for patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 disease or who provide other kinds of urgent care, and workers and residents in care homes for older adults are among the vaccine priority groups.

All the people of 70 years of age and older will also be in the priority groups together with persons at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease due to underlying health conditions.

Final priority order depends on the characteristics and intended use of authorised vaccines.

The THL will issue a more detailed breakdown of the priority groups based on age, risk factors, risk of severe disease or other relevant factors.

It will be based on medical evidence and the therapeutic indications of the market-authorised vaccines. Vaccination of children will become topical once vaccines have been tested in children.

Doctors are responsible for planning and implementing the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Vaccine injections can only be administered by doctors or by nurses, public health nurses, or midwives with appropriate vaccination training.

Data on all administered vaccines must be entered in electronic patient information systems. This data includes the patient’s identification data, date of vaccination, vaccine’s name, batch number, injection site, administration route, and vaccinator.

The vaccination data must be transmitted to the Finnish National Vaccination Register maintained by the THL in real time.

Earlier, the ministry said that the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is expected to arrive in Finland over Christmas and Finland prepares to start vaccinations alongside other EU countries on 27 December.