17.12.2020

Rec­om­men­da­tions for the Christ­mas period

• The recommendation is that parties are held remotely, that recommendations on masks are followed and that necessary precautions are taken.
• The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL recommends that Christmas is celebrated in small groups and preferably at home with the closest persons (in Finnish).
• If one wishes to gather, it is recommended that the group consists of under ten persons and that people possibly participate remotely.
• It is recommended that the recommendation by The Finnish institute for health and welfare THL on parties during Christmas time is followed. According to the recommendation, we should not completely bypass social interaction, but should instead come up with safe alternatives to arrange parties.
• Christmas meals can also be arranged in new ways. The Tax Administration has published its own bulletin about this for employers.

It is for exam­ple rec­om­mend­ed that rel­a­tives are vis­it­ed only if nec­es­sary. If one plans to vis­it oth­er than the clos­est per­sons dur­ing the Christ­mas peri­od, and espe­cial­ly if one vis­its elder­ly per­sons or per­sons who oth­er­wise belong to an at-risk group, the safe­ty of the meet­ing can be improved in many ways. 

If you vis­it a close per­son who lives in a nurs­ing home or a unit for sup­port­ed hous­ing and belongs to an at-risk group, it is impor­tant to fol­low the instruc­tions the per­son­nel gives carefully. 

One can reduce the risk of get­ting infect­ed one­self by avoid­ing social con­tacts before the holidays. 

It is of utmost impor­tance to remem­ber the same prin­ci­ples dur­ing the hol­i­days as oth­er­wise dur­ing the coro­n­avirus epi­dem­ic. The most impor­tant thing is to prac­tice good hand and cough­ing hygiene and to try to main­tain social dis­tanc­ing. One can also use face masks.

Test­ing dur­ing the Christ­mas period

It is also impor­tant to seek out test­ing even dur­ing the hol­i­days if one has even mild symp­toms that fit the coro­n­avirus and oth­er­wise to stay at home if one has symptoms.

It is pos­si­ble to come for a coro­n­avirus test even dur­ing Christ­mas. The coro­n­avirus helpline 06 828 7499 is open on week­day hol­i­days dur­ing week­end open­ing hours, i.e. is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (24 — 27.12, 31.12, 1.1.2021 and 6.1.2021). It is impor­tant to seek out coro­n­avirus test­ing with­out delay even if one only has mild symptoms!