omaolo.fi Vaccinations

Coro­n­avirus Vaccines

Has been updat­ed on the 26th of July 2021

Soite car­ries out the vac­ci­na­tions in accor­dance with the strat­e­gy for COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tions in Fin­land (in Finnish).

Cur­rent­ly, vac­ci­na­tion is avail­able to fol­low­ing groups:

Link: Soite’s coro­n­avirus indicator

Book­ing an appoint­ment for a coro­n­avirus vaccination

Coro­n­avirus vac­cines are only giv­en to those whose turn it is to be vac­ci­nat­ed accord­ing to the nation­al vac­ci­na­tion strat­e­gy. Appoint­ment book­ing by phone opens every Tues­day at 12 p.m.

An appoint­ment for a coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tion can be booked online or by phone. Vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ments are added to the elec­tron­ic appoint­ment book­ing always on Tues­days at 12 p.m., but also at oth­er times if appoint­ments are can­celled or if the num­ber of vac­cines sud­den­ly increas­es. The days that still have appoint­ments avail­able are marked with green colour in the web calendar.

Appoint­ment book­ing for a coro­n­avirus vaccination

The elec­tron­ic book­ing works more smooth­ly and we rec­om­mend that appoint­ments are booked online if pos­si­ble. The elec­tron­ic appoint­ment book­ing is eas­i­ly over­bur­dened imme­di­ate­ly after the appoint­ment book­ing opens, so there may be prob­lems in the func­tion of the Oma­hoito ser­vice. The ser­vice func­tions nor­mal­ly when the num­ber of vis­i­tors decreas­es, so when the sys­tem is over­loaded, it is best to wait a moment and then reat­tempt using the elec­tron­ic appoint­ment booking. 

An appoint­ment may be booked elec­tron­i­cal­ly via the Oma­hoito ser­vice if the ado­les­cent has the codes that are need­ed for elec­tron­ic iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (online bank­ing codes or a mobile cer­tifi­cate). If elec­tron­ic iden­ti­fi­ca­tion is not pos­si­ble, an appoint­ment should be booked by phone. We strive to expand the pos­si­bil­i­ties of book­ing appoint­ments by phone in the future.

Get your first dose of coro­n­avirus vac­cine with­out appoint­ment booking

Fur­ther­more, Soite will arrange 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 con­ve­nient for you. The fol­low­ing appoint­ment-free vac­ci­na­tion days will be arranged:

Oth­er infor­ma­tion about appoint­ment booking

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 in advance.

Please note: if you have pre­vi­ous­ly had an ana­phy­lac­tic shock, please book a vac­ci­na­tion appoint­ment to your own health care cen­tre or via the sec­re­tary at Soite’s vac­ci­na­tion cen­tral, phone 040 804 2821, Mon­days, Wednes­days, Thurs­days and Fri­days from 8 am to 3 pm and on Tues­days from 8 am to 12 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 Mon­days, Wednes­days, Thurs­days and Fri­days between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. and on Tues­days between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Vac­ci­na­tion for 12–15-year-olds

At this point, coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions are pos­si­ble in the age group 12–15 only for those who belong to a risk group. The Finnish Gov­ern­ment decides if vac­ci­na­tions will become avail­able for all 12–15-year-old per­sons. This would require e.g. chang­ing a decree. 

The risk groups are the same for chil­dren as the risk groups for adults that were decid­ed ear­li­er for the coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tion order. The only diver­gence from the risk groups for adults is over­weight: THL rec­om­mends that children’s body mass index ISO-BMI is used when assess­ing over­weight in chil­dren. It is rec­om­mend­ed that the low­er lim­it for ISO-BMI is 35, which in this age group means severe overweight.

Soite’s chief physi­cian of pae­di­atrics Andreas Blan­co Sequeiros has stud­ied the nation­al research into coro­n­avirus vac­ci­na­tions for 12–15-year-old per­sons and rec­om­mends sim­i­lar­ly to THL that all who have a right to a vac­ci­na­tion book an appoint­ment for a vaccination.

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 by the par­ents or oth­er per­sons who has cus­tody of the ado­les­cent. In such a case, Soite’s pae­di­atric out­pa­tient clin­ic should be contacted.

The sec­ond vac­cine dose

The appoint­ment book­ing only applies to the first dose of vac­cine. The appoint­ment regard­ing 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.

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 a.m. and 3 p.m. and on Tues­days between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.

It is rec­om­mend­ed that per­sons over the age of 65 con­tin­ue their vac­ci­na­tion series with the vac­cine they have received as their first dose if no med­ical imped­i­ments for using the vac­cine have come to light. If a per­son over the age of 65 wish­es it, they can, how­ev­er, 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).

Vac­cines

In Soite’s area, basi­cal­ly healthy 16–65-year-old per­sons are vac­ci­nat­ed with mRNA vac­cines (Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comir­naty or Mod­er­na). Only per­sons over the age of 18 are vac­ci­nat­ed with Moderna.

12–15-year-old ado­les­cents who belong to a risk group are vac­ci­nat­ed with Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comir­naty vac­cines, as it is the only coro­n­avirus vac­cine that has mar­ket­ing autho­riza­tion at this point for vac­ci­na­tion of per­sons over the age of 12. More infor­ma­tion on coro­n­avirus vac­cines and answers to fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions can be found on THL’s web­site.

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) 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 sec­ond vac­cine dose is giv­en in accor­dance with THL’s instructions:

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.

Vac­ci­na­tion sites

You can choose to which vac­ci­na­tion site you book an appoint­ment. Vac­ci­na­tion sites:

Ini­tial­ly, 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 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.

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 in line with the 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 June. The pre­vi­ous Finnish nation­al COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate is now 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 still region­al vari­a­tions 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. You can check the infor­ma­tion regard­ing your area in THL’s report (in Finnish). If need­ed, the vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate can be received on paper from 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 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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