Vaccination appointment bookings are now opening for 16–17-year-old Helsinki residents who have an illness or condition that places them at extremely high risk of severe COVID-19.
Vaccination appointments can be made online at coronavaccination-en.hel.fi starting from Monday 15 March at 16:00. You can also call the appointment booking line 09 310 46300 (open weekdays 8:00–18:00). Telephone appointment bookings for 16–17-year-olds will open on Tuesday 16 March. The appointment booking line uses a call-back service that records all calls, and all unanswered calls are returned.
As of tomorrow, all Helsinki residents who are at least 16–17 years of and have an illness or condition that makes them very susceptible to severe forms of COVID-19, can make an appointment for vaccination.
Illnesses or conditions that can result in very high susceptibility to severe COVID-19 are the following:
– organ transplant or stem cell transplant
– actively treated cancer disease
– severe immunological disorder
– severe chronic nephropathy
– severe chronic pulmonary disease
– drug-treated type 2 diabetes
– Down syndrome
More information on illnesses exposing people to severe COVID-19 and on the groups currently being vaccinated can be found at coronavaccination-en.hel.fi .
16–17-year-olds who belong to a risk group due to an illness will receive the Pfizer vaccine, for which the sales permit covers persons aged 16 and above.
18–69-year-olds belonging to the same risk group will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine The sales permit for the AstraZeneca vaccine includes persons aged 18 and above. In other words, those who have turned 18 at the time of vaccination are eligible recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine is currently used primarily for the vaccination of elderly persons – aged 70 and above.
Vaccine entitlement is checked at the vaccination points using the Kanta service or the City of Helsinki patient information system. If the person to be vaccinated is not a customer of the City of Helsinki social services and health care due to an illness or the information of the Kanta service cannot be accessed, the illness or condition very highly exposing the person to severe COVID-19 shall be proved otherwise, e.g. with a copy of the patient record.
Two shots of the vaccine are administered
Two shots of the vaccine are administered at an interval of 12 weeks, in accordance with the National Institute for Health and Welfare’s recommendation. The appointment for the second vaccination is set in conjunction with the first vaccination. Persons who have had COVID-19 are recommended to get vaccinated six months after the beginning of the symptoms or the diagnosis.
Vaccinations are administered at the vaccination points of Jätkäsaari, Messukuskus, Malmi and Myllypuro.
More information
Picture: Katja Laitinen