omaolo.fi Vaccinations

Coro­n­avirus Vaccines

This page has been updat­ed on the 18th of Octo­ber 2021

Soite car­ries out the vac­ci­na­tions in accor­dance with the strat­e­gy for COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tions in Fin­land (in Finnish). The vac­ci­na­tion does not cost anything.

Cur­rent­ly, vac­ci­na­tion is avail­able to the fol­low­ing groups:

Link: Soite’s coro­n­avirus indicator

Book­ing an Appoint­ment for a Coro­n­avirus Vaccination

An appoint­ment for a coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tion may be booked online or by phone, but vac­ci­na­tions will main­ly be con­cen­trat­ed to appoint­ment-free walk-in vac­ci­na­tion days.

Appoint­ment Book­ing for a Coro­n­avirus Vac­ci­na­tion:

The elec­tron­ic book­ing works more smooth­ly and we rec­om­mend that appoint­ments are booked online if possible. 

Walk-in Vac­ci­na­tion Days with­out Appoint­ment Booking

Soite arranges appoint­ment-free vac­ci­na­tion days dur­ing which you can get your first coro­n­avirus vac­cine dose with­out book­ing an appoint­ment before­hand, at a time of the day when it is most con­ve­nient for you. First as well as sec­ond and third vac­cine dos­es will be admin­is­tered dur­ing the walk-in-days. At a walk-in vac­ci­na­tion it is pos­si­ble to arrange for the sec­ond dose to be giv­en ear­li­er than planned, if at least six weeks have passed since the first vaccination.

Accord­ing to pol­i­cy by the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL, it is rec­om­mend­ed that the mRNA vac­ci­na­tion series (Pfiz­er and Mod­er­na) are com­plet­ed pri­mar­i­ly using the same vac­cine. If you want to receive your sec­ond vac­cine dose on an appoint­ment-free walk-in day, please check if the same vac­cine is avail­able on that day. Vac­cines avail­able on walk-in days are shown in the infor­ma­tion about the vac­ci­na­tion day. 

The fol­low­ing appoint­ment-free vac­ci­na­tion days are arranged:

Week 42

Week 43

Oth­er Infor­ma­tion about Appoint­ment Booking

You can book an appoint­ment via the elec­tron­ic Oma­hoito ser­vice if you have iden­ti­fiers that are need­ed for elec­tron­ic iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (online bank user iden­ti­fiers or a mobile ID). If elec­tron­ic iden­ti­fi­ca­tion is not pos­si­ble, the appoint­ment must be booked by phone. We strive to expand the pos­si­bil­i­ties of book­ing appoint­ments by phone in the future.

If an infor­mal care­giv­er or part­ner who lives in the same house­hold is vac­ci­nat­ed at the same time, the appoint­ment should be booked by phone for both persons.

We ask per­sons close to elder­ly per­sons to make sure they get an appoint­ment for a vac­ci­na­tion and are able to come to the vac­ci­na­tion site.

Appoint­ments are also avail­able in evenings and on week­ends and you may choose which vac­ci­na­tion site you want to go to. The elec­tron­ic book­ing sys­tem shows, which vac­ci­na­tion sites have avail­able vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ments. Appoint­ments are opened for about a week at a time, i.e. appoint­ments can­not be booked more than about a week in advance.

Please note: if you have pre­vi­ous­ly had an ana­phy­lac­tic shock, please book your vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ment to your own health care cen­tre or via the sec­re­tary at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion cen­tral, phone 040 804 2821, Mon­day to Fri­day 12 noon to 3 pm.

If an insur­mount­able obsta­cle occurs and it is not pos­si­ble for you to come to an appoint­ment you have booked, the appoint­ment can be can­celled via the Oma­hoito ser­vice or by call­ing the sec­re­tary at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion cen­tral, phone 040 804 2821 Mon­day to Fri­day 12 noon to 3 pm.

Vac­ci­na­tions for 12–15-year-old Per­sons and Stu­dents at Gen­er­al Upper Sec­ondary Schools

On week 32, vac­ci­na­tions were expand­ed to all 12–15-year-old per­sons in Soite’s area (more infor­ma­tion in the bul­letin). A vac­ci­na­tion can be giv­en to ado­les­cents who are at least 12 years old. If the birth­day is at the end of the year, a vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ment may be booked in advance, but the vac­ci­na­tion is not giv­en until the ado­les­cent has turned 12. Vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ments are avail­able for about a week at a time.

Schools inform pupils and par­ents in more detail about vac­ci­na­tions at schools. Nat­u­ral­ly, young peo­ple can also come to get vac­ci­nat­ed dur­ing gen­er­al appoint­ment-free walk-in vac­ci­na­tion days. 

As with oth­er vac­ci­na­tions, a per­son who is under 18 years old may make a deci­sion about the coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tion if a health care pro­fes­sion­al assess­es that the per­son is due to his/her age and lev­el of devel­op­ment capa­ble of mak­ing deci­sions on his/her own care. There is no age lim­it for a child’s right of self-deter­mi­na­tion. That is why the sit­u­a­tion is assessed case by case.

I an ado­les­cent is not capa­ble of mak­ing deci­sions on his/her care, e.g. because of an ill­ness, a deci­sion on vac­ci­nat­ing requires per­mis­sion from the par­ents or oth­er per­sons who have cus­tody of the ado­les­cent. In such a case, Soite’s pae­di­atric emer­gency clin­ic should be contacted.

More infor­ma­tion: fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions for chil­dren and young peo­ple (Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare, THL)

Vac­ci­na­tion Sites

You can choose to which vac­ci­na­tion site you book an appoint­ment. Vac­ci­na­tion sites for per­sons over the age of 16:

At this point, it is pos­si­ble to book an appoint­ment only to these vac­ci­na­tion sites. 

The appoint­ments for sec­ond vac­ci­na­tions that have been booked to the health care cen­tre in Veteli or the fam­i­ly cen­tre Pajala in Kausti­nen are trans­ferred to Pas­seli. The change of vac­ci­na­tion site does not require any action on the clien­t’s part. The appoint­ment time is not changed, only the vac­ci­na­tion site changes.

Please note:

The vac­ci­na­tion is free of charge for every­one and vol­un­tary. COVID-19 vac­cines offer effec­tive pro­tec­tion against the COVID-19 dis­ease and espe­cial­ly its severe forms. Accord­ing to cur­rent knowl­edge, COVID-19 vac­cines also work against mutat­ed virus vari­ants (source: THL).

Kela pro­vides com­pen­sa­tion for trav­el costs asso­ci­at­ed with COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tions 27th of March to 31st of Decem­ber 2021. More infor­ma­tion on Kela’s web­site.

Why Should I Take the Coro­n­avirus Vaccine?

  1. Coronavirus vaccines give effective protection against serious forms of COVID-19.
  2. The vaccines also protect against the long-term effects of COVID-19, the so-called long COVID, which may cause prolonged tiredness, shortness of breath, cough and joint and chest pain.
  3. By taking the vaccine, you can protect not only yourself but also others. The coronavirus vaccination significantly reduces the secretion of the virus and its spreading from one person to another.
  4. The risks associated with the vaccine are significantly smaller than those associated with a coronavirus infection. Link: Information about the coronavirus vaccination
  5. With vaccinations, we can return to a more normal life and the need for restrictions is reduced. Everyone who decides to take the vaccine makes a difference.

Vac­cines

In Soite’s area, basi­cal­ly healthy 12–65-year-old per­sons are vac­ci­nat­ed with mRNA vac­cines (Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comir­naty or Mod­er­na’s vac­cine). More infor­ma­tion on coro­n­avirus vac­cines and answers to fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions can be found on THL’s web­site.

The Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL has instruct­ed that men and boys under the age of 30 should, for now, only be offered BioN­Tech-Pfiz­er’s Comir­naty-vac­cine. Accord­ing to a Nordic fol­low-up study, myocardi­tis (inflam­ma­tion of the heart mus­cle) is pro­por­tion­al­ly more com­mon in per­sons who have received Mod­er­na’s Spike­vax-vac­cine than in per­sons who have received BioN­Tech-Pfiz­er’s Comir­naty-vac­cine, and the risk of get­ting myocardi­tis is high­er in young men than in women. Accord­ing to the study, myocardi­tis is, over­all, uncom­mon in per­sons who have received a coro­n­avirus vac­cine. Myocardi­tis occurs con­tin­u­al­ly also in per­sons who have not been vac­ci­nat­ed, as a result of dif­fer­ent infec­tions. More infor­ma­tion in THL’s press release (in Finnish).

Per­sons over the age of 65 are vac­ci­nat­ed in accor­dance with instruc­tions from The Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL. The Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL decid­ed that 65–69-year-old per­sons may also be vac­ci­nat­ed with mRNA vac­cines from the begin­ning of May if the per­son who is to be vac­ci­nat­ed so choos­es (more infor­ma­tion in THL’s text in Finnish). In Soite’s area, this means that per­sons over the age of 65 may choose if they are vac­ci­nat­ed with an mRNA vac­cine (Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comir­naty or Mod­er­na’s vac­cine) or with AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria vac­cine. If the appoint­ment is booked online, the per­son must choose the vac­cine they want to have in the Oma­hoito service.

Please note! Excep­tions are per­sons over the age of 65 who have had a sinus throm­bo­sis or who have had a low platelet count in con­nec­tion with treat­ment with heparin (throm­bo­cy­tope­nia, HIT): these per­sons are always vac­ci­nat­ed with mRNA vac­cines (Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comir­naty or Mod­er­na). If you have had such an ill­ness, please book your appoint­ment by phone.

The use of AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria vac­cine stops in Fin­land in Novem­ber 2021. Start­ing from the last week in Octo­ber, Janssen’s ade­n­ovirus vec­tor vac­cine is offered instead of AstraZeneca to per­sons who have turned 65 and old­er. The vac­cine can also be offered those 18–64-year-old per­sons who can­not be giv­en an mRNA vac­cine because of med­ical rea­sons. More infor­ma­tion in the press release by the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL (in Finnish).

All vac­cines, like oth­er med­i­cines, may have side effects. If you expe­ri­ence any side effects and need help, you can call Soite’s Med­ical Helpline at 116 117. Most side effects of the coro­n­avirus vac­cines are mild and tem­po­rary. The most com­mon side effects after vac­ci­na­tion are local symp­toms at the injec­tion site, such as pain, red­ness, heat and swelling. Tran­sient gen­er­al symp­toms such as fever, mus­cle aches, headache, fatigue, irri­tabil­i­ty, nau­sea and chills are also very com­mon. Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion can be found at both THL’s and FIMEA’s web sites.

The Sec­ond Vac­cine Dose

The appoint­ment book­ing only applies to the first dose of vac­cine. The appoint­ment for the boost­er dose is booked at the vac­ci­na­tion site dur­ing the first appoint­ment. An appoint­ment for the sec­ond vac­ci­na­tion has been giv­en in con­nec­tion with the first vac­ci­na­tion. At a walk-in vac­ci­na­tion it is pos­si­ble to arrange for the sec­ond dose to be giv­en ear­li­er than planned, if at least six weeks have passed since the first vaccination. 

The sec­ond vac­cine, i.e. the boost­er dose, is impor­tant because it helps strength­en the pro­tec­tion both against the orig­i­nal ver­sion of the coro­n­avirus and its muta­tions. The sec­ond dose also helps main­tain the pro­tec­tion as long as pos­si­ble. All coro­n­avirus vac­cines that are cur­rent­ly used in Fin­land are giv­en as two doses.

If an insur­mount­able obsta­cle occurs and you need to change sec­ond vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ment, please con­tact the sec­re­tary at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion cen­tral, phone 040 804 2821 Mon­days, Wednes­days, Thurs­days and Fri­days between 8 am and 3 pm and on Tues­days between 8 am and 12 pm.

Per­sons under the age of 65 are only vac­ci­nat­ed with mRNA vac­cines i.e. Mod­er­na’s vac­cine and BioN­Tech-Pfiz­er’s vac­cine even if the vac­ci­na­tion series has been start­ed with AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

If a per­son over the age of 65 wish­es it, they can receive an mRNA vac­cine as their sec­ond dose even if the vac­ci­na­tion series has begun with AstraZeneca’s ade­n­ovirus vec­tor vac­cine. More infor­ma­tion in the press release by the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL (in Finnish).

The Third Vac­cine Dose

A third dose is now giv­en to those aged 12 years and old­er who are severe­ly immuno­com­pro­mised due to a dis­ease or treat­ment as well as to social and health care per­son­nel who received their first vac­cine dos­es with­in a short inter­val of 3–4 weeks at the begin­ning of the year.

Per­sons who are severe­ly immuno­com­pro­mised due to a dis­ease or treat­ment

A third dose will be giv­en to those aged 12 years and old­er who are severe­ly immuno­com­pro­mised due to a dis­ease or treat­ment. The third dose is giv­en at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion sites. You can get vac­ci­nat­ed dur­ing a pre-booked appoint­ment or by vis­it­ing an appoint­ment-free walk-in vaccination.

Per­sons with any of the fol­low­ing dis­eases or con­di­tions are con­sid­ered to be severe­ly immunocompromised:

A series of three dos­es is rec­om­mend­ed for severe­ly immuno­com­pro­mised per­sons aged 12 years and old­er. Stud­ies show that in severe­ly immuno­com­pro­mised patients, the immune response is often defi­cient after a series of two vac­cines. A third dose of the vac­cine strength­ens their immunity.

The third dose can be giv­en if at least two months have passed since the sec­ond vac­ci­na­tion dose.

The third dose of the vac­cine is giv­en using pri­mar­i­ly the same vac­cine as was used for the sec­ond dose, unless med­ical rea­sons pro­hib­it this. More infor­ma­tion in the press release by the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare (in Finnish).

Safe­ty Mea­sures Against the Coro­n­avirus Must Be Remem­bered Even After Vac­ci­na­tion — Use of Face Masks Will Continue

After vac­ci­na­tion it is still impor­tant to main­tain social dis­tanc­ing, to prac­tise good hand and cough­ing hygiene, to use face masks when social dis­tanc­ing is not pos­si­ble, to be test­ed when symp­toms emerge, and to fol­low oth­er instruc­tions in fight­ing the coro­n­avirus. 

This is nec­es­sary because we do not have enough infor­ma­tion about how effec­tive­ly the vac­cine pre­vents trans­mis­sion. Guide­lines are amend­ed as new infor­ma­tion emerges, but at this time the same rec­om­men­da­tions apply to both vac­ci­nat­ed per­sons and those not pro­tect­ed by vac­ci­na­tion. This is a pre­cau­tion­ary principle.

After the start of vac­ci­na­tions, it will still take a long time before immune pro­tec­tion at the pop­u­la­tion lev­el is achieved and the epi­dem­ic has been defeated.

Link: Trans­mis­sion and pro­tec­tion – coro­n­avirus (The Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare, THL)

Every­one can help in the fight against the coro­n­avirus and oth­er infec­tious dis­eases by prac­tis­ing good hand hygiene and by cough­ing, sneez­ing, and blow­ing their nose cor­rect­ly. This is why these prac­tices are always important.

How the Vac­ci­na­tions Are Pro­gress­ing 2021

Vac­ci­na­tion Certificates

EU’s COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate is now avail­able on the My Kan­ta Pages. Two oth­er EU vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cates, i.e. cer­tifi­cate on test and cer­tifi­cate on pre­vi­ous COVID-19 infec­tion come to the My Kan­ta Pages begin­ning on 14th of July. The pre­vi­ous Finnish nation­al COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate was tak­en out of use and it is rec­om­mend­ed that a nation­al vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate that is saved e.g. on the phone or print­ed on paper, is replaced with EU’s COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate. The nation­al COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate is auto­mat­i­cal­ly replaced with EU’s COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate on the My Kan­ta Pages.

There is region­al vari­a­tion regard­ing how quick­ly infor­ma­tion on vac­ci­na­tions is trans­ferred to the My Kan­ta Pages. This is why the vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cates are not yet on the My Kan­ta Pages for all per­sons who have been vac­ci­nat­ed. If need­ed, the vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate can be received on paper from the health care services.

EU’s COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate con­tains infor­ma­tion on the coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions a per­son has received: for exam­ple the name of the vac­cine prod­uct that has been used, the day the lat­est vac­ci­na­tion has been giv­en and the num­ber of vac­cine dos­es. A cer­tifi­cate is received already after the first vaccination.

EU’s COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate can be shown on a mobile device or can be print­ed on a paper. The infor­ma­tion on EU’s COVID-19 cer­tifi­cate is in Finnish, Swedish and Eng­lish. The cer­tifi­cate is free of charge.

Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion in THL’s mes­sage (in Finnish).

Infor­ma­tion About the Coro­n­avirus Vaccine

Safe­ty of COVID-19 vaccines

The Finnish Med­i­cines Agency Fimea and the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and wel­fare THL mon­i­tor the adverse effects and the safe­ty of the COVID-19 vac­cines care­ful­ly — no sur­pris­ing adverse effects have come to light  (THL, in Finnish)

Ques­tions and answers about the coro­n­avirus vac­cine (Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare THL)

Ques­tions and answers about the coro­n­avirus vac­cine (The Finnish Med­i­cines Agency Fimea

Coro­n­avirus vac­cines in Fin­land (the Min­istry of Social Affairs and health)

Infor­ma­tion about the coro­n­avirus vac­cine (ECDC)

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