HUS nurses criticise decision to vaccinate doctors first
Doctors at Töölö Hospital in Helsinki have received the coronavirus vaccine before other members of healthcare staff.
Töölö Hospital shop steward Katri Ahola.
Image: Petteri Bülow / Yle
Nursing staff working for the Helsinki University Hospital District (HUS) have criticised the provision of coronavirus vaccines to doctors ahead of other healthcare staff in the district.
According to shop steward
Katri Ahola, tensions at the HUS’s Töölö hospital in Helsinki are at boiling point as healthcare staff are outraged by the decision to prioritise doctors. It is completely contrary to equality, that individuals and professional groups can bypass the vaccination queue. It has been systematic and extensive, said Ahola, who also works as a nurse in the neurosurgical intensive care unit.
Majority of Finnish labs unable to identify coronavirus variants
Sending samples to THL for confirmation of variants is leading to delays and longer periods in quarantine.
Samples are currently being sent to THL from many hospital districts to test for virus variants.
Image: Petteri Bülow / Yle
The majority of testing laboratories in Finland are unable to determine if a positive coronavirus sample is a mutated virus variant, such as have spread in the UK, Ireland and South Africa.
Instead, the samples are sent to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) for further examination and confirmation.
In the Kainuu hospital district, this has led to a delay of nearly three weeks in determining if a newer, more highly contagious variant of the virus was spreading in the region.
Covid vaccine rolls out in Tampere, Turku, Kuopio and Oulu
A vaccinologist told Yle that if all goes to plan, Finland could reach herd immunity during the summer.
On Monday specialist physician Mervi Mendiluce was the first health care worker in the Pirkanmaa region to receive the first of two coronavirus vaccine doses in Tampere.
Image: Kalle Parkkinen / Lehtikuva
Finland s rollout of the coronavirus vaccine continued on Monday in the cities of Turku, Tampere, Kuopio and Oulu, where healthcare providers were first in line to be vaccinated.
Healthcare workers from the Helsinki University Hospital District (HUS) began receiving the vaccine on Sunday. Staff members who first received jabs care for Covid-19 patients in regular and ICU hospital wards, as well as those who may encounter people with coronavirus infections at urgent care units.
Three people have been diagnosed with two different strains of the virus.
Health care worker administers coronavirus test at drive-in testing site, file photo.
Image: Jorge Gonzalez / Yle
Three people who recently returned to Finland from abroad have been diagnosed with new strains of the coronavirus, according to a joint press release from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM), the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Helsinki University Hospital District (HUS).
Two of the infections are a variant of the coronavirus that was recently identified in the UK and one has been confirmed to have been infected by the variant found in South Africa.
Finland s largest circulation daily, Helsingin Sanomat, is among the papers reporting that Prime Minister
Sanna Marin (SDP) told the media on Wednesday evening that the government will not, at least yet, be seeking to re-activate the Emergency Powers Act to deal with the resurgence of the coronavirus in the country.
However, she did announce that all parliamentary parties are being invited to take part in a discussion on the situation this coming Monday.
It is the government s view that the conditions required to activate emergency powers have not yet been met. The prime minister pointed out, however, that expert opinion is that the situation could change quickly.