Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) said during an interview on Yle TV1 on Wednesday evening that in the current Covid situation, the adequacy of 80 percent vaccine coverage in Finland had to be reassessed and that restrictions had to be tightened.

In her view, the situation is particularly worrying from the point of view of healthcare service capacity, and the availability of intensive care beds.

"We want to make sure that intensive care units are not overloaded to such an extent that people cannot get care," she said.

According to Marin, the package of stringent measures being referred to as an "emergency brake" are not yet required, and efforts are being made to deal with the surge in infections with measures including tighter border entry requirements, bar and restaurant safety rules, and regional restrictions.

"We listen very carefully to projections from the hospital districts about when the demand on capacity could become unsustainable. We are relying on estimates from the authorities and professionals," Marin added.

Mandatory vaccination

The prime minister welcomed a proposal by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health on the mandatory vaccination of health and social care personnel.

"It is necessary to ensure, through legislation, that people do this," she pointed out.

Marin sees the Covid pass as an incentive to vaccination and supports a proposal to make the pass mandatory in all workplaces.

She added, however, that this should not be interpreted as a move to divide people into "good and bad citizens".

"It is important to include different sections of the population in the vaccination programme. It would be good for the government and the health authorities not to disagree or have differing views [on the issue]. Information on the safety of vaccinations must be based on data from health authorities, even if it is the government that decides on vaccination strategy", the prime minister stressed.