Security Getting help can be delayed in emergencies if the coronavirus situation worsens: “We don’t have any extra resources”

Can you to receive assistance in emergencies if the coronavirus situation continues to deteriorate in Finland?

Yes you can, say actors in different security sectors.

For example, answering public emergency calls may be delayed this winter if more emergency center attendants start to leave due to infections or exposures.

So far, the situation in the emergency centers has been relatively calm, but the infection situation worries the management of the Emergency Response Center.

“We don’t have any extra resources. If there are illnesses and exposures of workers, it will immediately affect the response times of emergency calls. Experience has shown that it is difficult to reach the target time of ten seconds if a few people are absent from work, ”says the Director of the Development Department of the Emergency Response Center. Jukka Aaltonen.

Aaltonen does not want to estimate how significantly the response to emergency calls could be delayed if larger numbers of emergency center on-call workers started to fall ill or be exposed at the same time.

“The problem is that there are no deputies available for them. They go for what they have. ”

Also fire trucks and ambulances may in some cases be slower than normal if there is a significant increase in illness and exposure of rescue workers.

“We’re doing everything we can to prevent that from happening, but it’s possible. However, I do not think that our service production will soon run into bigger problems, ”says the rescue director general of the Ministry of the Interior. Kimmo Kohvakka.

Infection and exposure rates have increased recently in rescue services, but according to Kohvaka, the facilities have quite good opportunities to make up for absenteeism through staff transfers, overtime and the use of contract fire brigades.

According to Kohvaka, workers’ exposures and the resulting quarantine can cause as many problems as the infections themselves.

“Along the way, we have had individual cases where the entire work shift of the fire station has fallen out of strength at once,” says Kohvakka.

Police administration the situation has remained fairly good so far, although the corona situation and the common flu have recently increased absenteeism somewhat.

“We believe that the operational readiness of the police will remain good. Of course, Omikron is spreading damn fast, so we have to be awake all the time, ”says the police inspector of the Police Board. Marko Heikkilä.

The police are working to ensure that emergency alerts are handled, especially in the event of large numbers of workers being left out of line due to illness or exposure.

If necessary, police officers can be transferred to carry out alert tasks, for example, from traffic control and other surveillance tasks. It is also possible to transfer forensic investigators to field work.

The police resorted to this type of personnel transfer in the spring of 2020, when the isolation of Uusimaa tied up a lot of police resources.

The coronation situation deterioration can also affect the functioning of the courts.

“There is a high risk that sessions will have to be canceled if illnesses and exposures increase. There are already more reports every day, especially about exposures, ”says the llama of the Helsinki District Court Tuomas Nurmi.

In 2020, the courts postponed numerous lawsuits to the future as a precaution. At least the Helsinki District Court does not intend to do so now, but any transfers are due to illness and exposure.

Infections and submissions by employees of the Helsinki District Court have increased in recent weeks. They have not exactly led to the adjournment of sessions, as there are normally very few sessions at the turn of the year.

“Next week we will see what the real situation is,” says Nurmi.