03.01.2022

Coro­n­avirus Vac­ci­na­tions for all 5–11-year-old Chil­dren Begin in Soite

The Finnish Gov­ern­ment changed the decree on coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions on the 22nd of Decem­ber so that all per­sons who are 5 years old or old­er may get a coro­n­avirus vac­cine. The decree is in effect as of 23rd of Decem­ber 2021. Pre­vi­ous­ly coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions were only offered to those 5–11-year-olds who were at risk of severe coro­n­avirus disease.

Soite now expands coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions to all 5–11-year-olds. Vac­ci­na­tions are main­ly done on appoint­ments at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion cen­trals on a so called “children’s line”.

Vac­ci­na­tions with appoint­ment on the “children’s line” at vac­ci­na­tion centrals

Coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions are orga­nized for all 5–11-year-olds with appoint­ment book­ing at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion cen­trals. Appoint­ments may already be booked for this week.

• Electronic booking online via the Omahoito service: soite.terveytesi.fi is open 24/7.
• Appointment booking by phone via the child health clinic’s telephone service 06 826 4477 Monday to Thursday from 8 am to 1 pm and Fridays from 8 am to 11 am
• Appointment booking via one’s own school nurse (the page is available in Finnish and Swedish).

Log on to the elec­tron­ic Oma­hoito ser­vice with your online bank user iden­ti­fiers (or some oth­er means of strong iden­ti­fi­ca­tion) in order to book an appoint­ment for your­self or a child under the age of 12. The days that still have appoint­ments avail­able are marked with green colour in the web calendar.

A per­son who is under 18 years old may make a deci­sion about the coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tion if a health care pro­fes­sion­al who gives vac­ci­na­tions assess­es that the per­son is thanks to his/her age and lev­el of devel­op­ment capa­ble of mak­ing deci­sions on the vac­ci­na­tion. No age lim­it has been set in the law for a child’s right of inde­pen­dent deci­sion-mak­ing. That is why the sit­u­a­tion is assessed case by case. When it comes to most 5–11-year-olds, per­mis­sion is need­ed from the per­sons who have cus­tody of the child.

Vac­cine

Those aged 5–11 will be giv­en the BioN­Tech-Pfiz­er Comir­naty vac­cine; a prepa­ra­tion with a small­er dosage will be used specif­i­cal­ly for this age group.

More infor­ma­tion in the bul­letin by the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL.