The Competition Authority, which was investigating the causes of the record hike in electricity rates in August, has completed its investigation and is now in the process of validating the results, which will be published latest on Wednesday.
0 >A bottle of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during the first vaccinations in Tallinn, Estonia on December 27. Source: Ken Mürk/ERR
A second batch of nearly 10,000 Pfizer/Biontech coronavirus vaccines is due to arrive in Estonia next week.
Eike Kingsepp, media adviser at the Health Board (Terviseamet), told ERR that a consignment of 9,750 doses of coronavirus vaccine will double the volume received from that company on December 26.
A total of 2,487 people in Estonia have received their first coronavirus inoculation thus far. The procurement is part of a pan-EU tender for coronavirus vaccines, which has seen several companies either agreeing a contract with the European Commission or in the process of negotiation.
0 >Estonia s first COVID-19 vaccine was given to resident-doctor Jelena Rozinko in Kohtla-Järve in Ida-Viru County on December 27. Source: Sergei Stepanov/ERR
Coronavirus vaccinations for all those who desire it is not feasible by the target date of the end of June 2021, daily Postimees says. However, the paper was unable to get concrete information on when and whether delivery rates would be met.
Several private sector firms are involved at various stages of EU procurement processes for the COVID-19 vaccine, so the issue is a moving target already. Once priority people have received the injection, administering inoculation to the rest of the populace also hinges on how many people actually request it; at present the vaccine is optional and is not mandatory for all citizens and residents.
With the first case of the new strain of SARS-Cov-2 having recently been discovered in Finland in a passenger arriving from the United Kingdom, Irja Lutsar, virology professor and head of the anti-COVID-19 research council advising the Estonian government, said that nothing new has been learned about the new strain, including whether or not the course of illness caused by it is any more severe, Postimees reports. The new strain has 17 mutations, many of them in the spike protein area, Lutsar told Postimees. The new allegedly faster spreading variant of SARS-Cov-2 was initially found in the United Kingdom. This strain reached Europe even before air traffic was halted, Lutsar said. Other states that have begun looking for it have found cases of the strain, too.