Castle party | THL’s Salminen praised Linna’s corona measures, the presidential couple’s handshake breaks delighted social media

For the castle party many representatives of the healthcare industry have been invited this year. Among those invited, there are especially many healthcare professionals who were on display during the Corona period.

The coronavirus pandemic postponed Linna’s celebrations by a few years. In 2021, they were completely canceled due to the epidemic, and in 2020, the traditional reception was replaced by a festive broadcast from different parts of Finland.

All those invited to the canceled party in 2021 have also received an invitation to this year’s party.

Health and director of the Welfare Influencers Department of the Swedish Welfare Institute (THL). Mika Salminen said at the party that it is great for the whole of Finland that now after the corona period we are “in a fairly normal course of life”. Salminen is one of the most visible media faces of the corona era.

The corona years have increased the determination of Finns – we can get through everything together, Salminen described.

He praised Linna’s coronavirus measures.

Salminen estimates that Finland has survived the pandemic “pretty well” by many measures and even better than the average compared to other countries. However, he pointed out that he is partially left to evaluate the situation, the overall evaluation of which will take a couple of years.

For himself, Salminen described the corona years as full of work and difficult, when everyone was facing something new. According to him, the disagreements in decision-making were quite small in the end: it would have been wonderful if there had been no arguments.

Salminen was happy that he had seen many colleagues from the healthcare industry among the guests.

Teaching nurse Sari Roos described his mood in Linna as relieved: the invitation presented last year was implemented. Roos was invited to Linna especially because of his vaccination innovation. He came up with a way to get 40 percent more vaccine doses from the vaccination ampoule.

Behind the scenes of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot has happened in healthcare, Roos said. He has also been in Helsinki opening new hospitals and vaccination points.

Most of all, Roos would like more staff in the healthcare sector. He described the situation as a longer-term problem, which is still particularly visible due to the ongoing coronavirus situation.

Pandemic in the aftermath, hand sanitizer was used diligently in Linna. In addition to the guests and the outfits, Twitter and other social media were talking about the presidential couple’s hand disinfection breaks.

President Sauli Niinistö and mrs Jenni Haukio used hand sanitizer at regular intervals between handshakes. The line of handshakes stopped for a moment for a hand washing break.

Niinistö has said before that greetings can be done by nodding if you want. The coronavirus was also taken into account at the Linna’s party in the form of a smaller than normal number of guests. In addition, the guests took a coronavirus test before the party and there were air purifiers in the party space.