In a tweet on Wednesday, Minister of the Interior Krista Mikkonen (Green)said that the government is to meet on Thursday to plan out tightened entry restrictions at the country's borders.

Wanting to avoid the worsening epidemic situation in countries like Norway and Denmark, the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has proposed to require arrivals to have proof of a recent negative Covid test, even if they're fully vaccinated.

On Tuesday evening, the family and basic services minister, Krista Kiuru, said that there are other proposals in the works to slow the spread of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron. But those proposals were less stringent than ones suggested by the health agency.

Kiuru said that arrivals from Denmark, Norway and the UK - which are countries considered to have high coronavirus infection rates - would be required to submit to Covid checks upon arrival.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the government is scheduled to decide whether to require arrivals from outside the EU and Schengen area to show proof of a recent negative Covid test.

THL: Do country-specific checks make sense?

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has sent letters of instruction to municipalities along border crossing points, about the testing rules and the countries of arrival that are affected.

According to a statement from THL sent to Yle, at least the countries of Nigeria, Denmark and possibly the UK and Norway will be on the list. At the same time, Sweden would likely also be included as travel to and from Denmark is so frequent and common, that the Omicron variant is thought to have also spread in Sweden.

However, the THL also posed the question whether it makes sense to monitor arrivals from individual countries anymore.

The agency said that up to 13,000 passengers are currently arriving at Helsinki Airport every day, and that extending on-site testing to arrivals from Nigeria, Denmark, the UK, Norway and Sweden would not be possible due to lack of resources.

Instead, the THL proposed all arrivals show negative Covid test certificates that were issued within 48 hours of arriving in the country. According to the statement, the exception to that rule would be permanent residents and citizens who would be tested after entering the country.