This month, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) began offering residents of care homes a second COVID-19 vaccine booster. Care homes, however, are seeing no big rush to vaccinate.
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As of Monday, the vaccination coverage for people aged 80 and above stands at 58.5 percent. At the same time, there are some family physician registries in Estonia, where coverage among the oldest age groups has not peaked 10 percent yet.
There were eight family physician centers in Estonia last week, where the elderly vaccine coverage was between 0-9 percent.
Health Insurance Fund (Haigekassa) spokesperson Evelin Trink told ERR that there are four centers, where there are only one or two patients and one center s registry has four patients. Therefore, the percentage of vaccinated people is lower if one person s refusal matters so much.
As vaccinations for people aged under 50 are set to begin in Estonia next week, pharmacies have stated their availability to assist in the process. The state vaccination plan however points to sufficient capabilities in inoculating the general public.
Franchise manager of BENU pharmacies Rainer Kaseväli told ERR that pharmacists have the readiness to assist with vaccinating, but they do not have the necessary license to provide special medical services. Instead, all pharmacists have a license to provide pharmaceutical services, based on which they are not allowed to administer vaccines.
Apotheka franchise model chief Marika Pensa said pharmacists have stated to the Ministry of Social Affairs and the prime minister s office their preparedness to add COVID-19 vaccinations to their list of administrable vaccines, which also includes the influenza and tick-borne encephalitis.