Remote work to continue in transmission areas until Sep 30

The government on Thursday recommended that the ongoing remote working provision will be continued until 30 September in areas that are in the acceleration or community transmission phase.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health have reviewed the rationale for the national recommendation to work remotely and kept the recommendation unchanged as the vaccine coverage is not yet sufficient, said the Ministries in a joint press release.

The rationale for the recommendation will be reassessed in mid-September.

The nature of the epidemic has changed since early summer. Now the numbers of infections reported are so high that the situation may deteriorate quite quickly despite the progress made in vaccinations.

In addition, at the moment most of the cases are caused by the Delta variant, which spreads more easily that the other known variants. Extensive remote work has been considered to limit the spreading of the disease, said the Ministries.

Now that the vaccine coverage is improving, the process to prepare for the transition from remote work to a hybrid model will be started without delay.

On the national level work on the transition to a hybrid work model will be done in cooperation between the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, ministries, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and labour market organisations.