At the moment the Health Board cannot say how many teachers or doctors have been vaccinated.  

"We do not have such data at the moment. It takes time to get this data, it is cumbersome," said Juta Varjas, chief specialist of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Health Board.

If the agency had data it would be possible to aim prevention work at target groups. Varjas said having accurate data on testing, transmission and vaccinations would help with identifying and stopping outbreaks.

"The principle of this bill is that we will become more operational. In this case, in order to free close contacts from self-isolation once they have been vaccinated, it will take us time. A person will tell us that yes, I am vaccinated, but we need to check," he explained.

However, the Data Protection Inspectorate sees shortcomings in the draft. For example, the draft leaves data privacy issues to the government.

Legal adviser at the Inspectorate Liisa Ojangu said: "Everything that is collected in the register of communicable diseases under this law is decided by a government decree - which data, from which registers and for how long. It was particularly disappointing that, in essence, the law empowered the government to retain this data indefinitely."

She said the collection of data would affect almost the entire population.

Priit Sibul (Isamaa) said the amendment is needed if society does not want to face another lockdown later this year. However, he said, more work needs to be carried out on the amendment.

Member of the Riigikogu Center Party Siret Kotka said the processing of the bill is likely to take place in September. It has currently passed one reading.

The Riigikogu is currently on summer vacation. 

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