HS interview Minister Krista Kiuru: Emergency braking must be decided next week and restrictive measures must be significantly increased

Family- and the Minister of Basic Services Krista Kiurulla (sd) tends to warn of a corona situation, but this time he is extremely concerned, even on a Kiuru meter.

Of particular concern was the increase on Friday when the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (Hus) announced that the number of coronary patients was threatening grows strongly.

“I am very concerned, especially about the situation of Hus under the omicron wave. Patient numbers are forecast to rise sharply in the coming weeks. At the same time, a significant part of the nursing staff is on annual leave. As far as I know, the staff’s sick leave is also on the rise, ”says Kiuru.

“On Friday, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM) presented to the SOTE Ministerial Working Group that the government would decide the timetable for the introduction of the emergency brake next week at a government negotiation, ”Kiuru said on Friday.

Lark fears that not even all decision-makers have yet realized the seriousness of the situation, even though it is already the worst of the whole pandemic.

He thinks that the Norwegian authorities’ forecast of hundreds of thousands of daily infections has not been taken lightly.

“According to THL’s estimate of the Department of Health and Welfare, the omicron transformation is 3–4 times more contagious than the delta transformation. Now the infections are on top of 2,000 a day. If they repeat this rate on top of the interest rate, we too can quickly have a completely different category of daily infections. ”

“This tidal wave is coming anyway, but we need to do everything we can to make it even a little quieter. The sandbags piled up against the wave are still in use, ”says Krista Kiuru (sd), Minister of Family and Basic Services.

“Now is the last moment to show that the gravity of the situation has been understood and to put in place all the necessary means by law.”

European The Infectious Diseases Agency (ECDC) has warned of the risk that omikron will cause a very high increase in hospital workload and mortality in Europe.

“Its strong message is that immediate action is needed now. I’ve talked about this too, ”says Kiuru.

“We need to have decision-making capacity, and the state will face these decisions next week. We too need to take the action that the ECDC has identified as necessary. ”

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“These include significantly strengthening restrictive measures, increasing the use of masks and tightening assembly restrictions, and streamlining testing and tracing.”

According to Kiuru, contacts outside the family must now be restricted. He recalled that the ECDC also recommended that serious consideration be given to anything other than essential travel.

Different ministries have prepared a so-called emergency brake, which would result in much tougher restrictive measures.

Read more: Finland is not far from a situation where the government’s own plan is to introduce an emergency brake on corona operations – that would mean

All the main criteria for using the emergency brake are already met.

However, the cross-administrative official assessment of the emergency brake is still awaiting information on the situation in the regions over the weekend.

The government will discuss the corona situation in its negotiations next Tuesday.

Emergency brakeN At its strongest, the introduction would mean a return to a “similar state” that was experienced in Finland in the spring of 2020 and 2021.

After the emergency brake was applied, the various spaces could be closed so that not even the corona pass could enter them. The regulation may stipulate that alcohol cannot be consumed in restaurants after 5 pm, even if a person has to show a corona passport. Schools can be assigned to distance learning.

Most of the restrictions would continue to be enforced by the regional administrations if they deem the measures appropriate.

Are Krista Kiuru’s proposals to the government also ECDC’s proposals?

“I consider the ECDC guidelines important and they need to be taken seriously. The government must make its own decisions next week. ”

“Restrictive measures are already in place in Finland, but the question is whether they are sufficient. Now is the last moment to show that the gravity of the situation has been understood and to put in place all the necessary means by law. ”

Eif the emergency brake is not applied next week, eDoes this mean that the government is not implementing its own strategy?

“We have prepared the emergency brake together with the various ministries according to the agreed policy. Next week, the government will discuss the latest regional situation. ”

In what order are the emergency brake actions applied?

“I am not going to speculate on the contents of the emergency brake yet, as they are the things of next week and next week it will be assessed whether the regional measures are insufficient. Then it is up to the Government to decide what action to take and on what schedule. ”

“Vaccination has been unacceptably slow.”

Lark hopes that Finland, like Italy, will also be required to require a negative corona test result less than 48 hours old from within Europe’s internal borders.

The new restriction could be made by reintroducing internal border controls and the Ministry of the Interior will start requiring a certificate of a negative corona test result at a border check. The Infectious Diseases Act does not make this possible.

The requirement would not apply to Finns and those living permanently in Finland.

Kiuru says that he is well aware that many doctors no longer consider border measures necessary because omikron has already spread to Finland.

“This tidal wave is coming anyway, but we need to do everything we can to make it even a little quieter. The sacks of sand piled up against the wave are still in use. ”

Certificate According to Kiuru, the requirement reduces the need for tests at borders. According to him, the only consolation in the past is the rather high vaccination coverage in Finland.

“The new problem is that the Sote Ministerial Working Group heard on Thursday that only the third dose protects against the omicron variant as well as the second dose against the current delta variant.”

Kiuru says vaccinations are really in a hurry now. According to him, there are enough vaccines, even if half a million Finns are vaccinated every week.

“Vaccination has been unacceptably slow.”

By the end of the year, 2.5 million vaccines will be in stock, and hundreds of thousands more will be added each week from the beginning of the year.

He also reveals that Finland has just signed an agreement guaranteeing that vaccines developed for omicron will enter Finland immediately if they are developed according to plan.

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Government is likely to prepare a decree next week that will also allow local nurses and the Defense Forces to help with vaccinations.

Vaccinations are the responsibility of the municipalities, but the STM has been centrally looking for who could take part in the rapid vaccinations. The ministry will soon send instructions to pandemic groups in the areas about, among other things, what more vaccinators can ask.

“Finland now vaccinates another hundred thousand a week, and Denmark the same amount a day. Now we have to act quickly and we don’t have to wonder if the vaccines are enough or if the vaccination will be organized, ”says Kiuru.

THL has estimated that up to 600,000 people a week could be vaccinated in Finland quickly.

Lark warned in an HS interview in August that citizens would be disappointed if restrictions were lifted too early. He said the situation could get even worse.

Finland is now perhaps in an even worse situation than Kiuru warned in an HS interview.

“Too much disease in the fall will mean that vaccination coverage will have to be as high as about 90 percent for society to open up,” he said at the time.

During the Kiuru interview, people and the media demanded and politicians talked about opening the country.

Kiuru’s pessimism was not shared by health authorities and the media.

Kiuru’s warnings, for example, were not believed by Husin vs. the chief medical officer Jari Petäjä and the chief physician of THL To Hanna Nohy.

“Once the 80 percent vaccination coverage is achieved, Finland’s resources should no longer be a problem that shakes society from the perspective of medical care,” said Husin Petäjä in the same interview.

Krista Kiuru, what should have been done differently to make the situation better now?

“The large number of infections that were there at the time should have been taken seriously. We went into the fall with far too many infections, which is now at the bottom when the fire came. ”

Correction 18.12.2021 at 6.37: The story previously read incorrectly that Minister Kiuru would have said that Finland is now vaccinating more than one hundred thousand people a day. However, it is a week.

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