HUS Chief Physician: A fully vaccinated person should be able to spend Christmas normally News
Asko Järvinen, Finland’s largest healthcare infectious disease manager, says that although the new Omicron variant is causing uncertainty, most people should be able to gather for a party normally.
Yle’s news
By Asko Järvinen, Chief Physician of Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) and Head of Infectious Diseases, Covid-19’s new, more contagious variant of Omicron could become Finland’s dominant position by Christmas “if things go really bad”.
“Omicron is causing a bit of uncertainty, but at the moment it looks like Christmas might be perfectly normal,” he told Yle TV1’s No. 1 Morning News program on Saturday morning.
Fully vaccinated people should still be able to spend Christmas with each other more or less normally, he said.
Unvaccinated are another matter, as they now get more infections than at any point during the entire epidemic – even before the Omicron variant is likely to arrive. A new daily record of 1,406 new cases was reached on Friday, about a third in the HUS area.
HUS, which includes Helsinki University Hospital and four other hospital areas, is Finland’s largest healthcare provider.
“The unique feature of this epidemic is that the illness of a relatively small part of the population leads to large numbers of intensive care patients,” Järvinen said of the current situation as intensive care units are approaching full capacity in many places in the country.
There were 44 patients in the intensive care unit on Friday, and authorities warned of dramatic side effects on other health care if that number exceeds 50-60.
Alpha can reach its peak at Christmas time
At the moment, it is important to focus on continuing the effective fight against the Delta strain, Järvinen emphasized. Infections caused by delta are on the rise in Finland, and according to the forecast, the peak will be around Christmas.
Järvinen predicts that the entire winter season will continue at the same pandemic level as now, and restrictions and the use of a Covid passport will be needed at least until next spring.
With nearly a third of the population still without full vaccination protection, the epidemic has plenty of room to move forward. Decisions on vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 and extending the third booster vaccine to those under 60 are expected soon.
Järvinen refused to speculate further about the possible effects of Omicron and said that little is known about it so far.
It is known that Omicron is more likely to spread faster than Delta, but not yet whether it causes a more serious illness or is better able to break vaccine protection, he said.
“Despite border controls, options are spreading fast”
However, based on the previous variants, it is clear that Finland will not be able to prevent the introduction of the new variant if the variant is allowed to spread around the world, Järvinen said.
“Despite all the border controls and other precautions, these options have spread very quickly,” he noted.
When the Alpha variant from Britain arrived in Finland last Christmas, the variant was quickly identified and tracing was started immediately.
“However, Alpha entered the mainstream in eight weeks, at about the same time as the rest of the world. Control measures were unable to prevent it from spreading, although peak levels of infection were probably avoided,” Järvinen said.
By Saturday, Omicron had been spotted in South Africa and at least in Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium via a visitor to Egypt and Turkey. Germany, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom also reported suspected cases on Saturday.