Army medics setting up Tallinn coronavirus vaccine station
Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) medic are to station a mobile coroanvirus vaccine post at a Tallinn shopping center, starting Tuesday. The service is to be open to the civilian public, through to October.
Lt. Col. Targo Lusti, EDF chief medical officer, said that: "While thus far, the defense forces have focused its vaccination efforts on immunizing conscripts and officials in the defense ministry's area of government, we now have a chance to also contribute to supporting the rest of the population."
"Maximum vaccination coverage is at present the best way to keep life going without a lock-down," Lt. Col. Targo Lusti added, according to BNS.
The vaccine center will be in the Mustika shopping mall in the Mustamäe district of the capital, and at the time of writing will be working Tuesday and Thursday this week.
The initiative follows a call for assistance from Minister of Health and Labor Tanel Kiik. while two active EDF medics, along with two Naiskodukaitse members, are to staff the facility. Naiskodukaitse is the women's volunteer Defense League organization, and boosts the regular EDF in it capacities.
Appointments at the center, and indeed nationwide, can be booked via the national online patient portal (Digilugu) or by calling 1247 (English is spoken), and/or at the vaccination portal here.
The government's vaccine tsar, Marek Seer, said that: We've been hearing of hundreds of new infected every day and vaccinating as many people as possible is the only way for keeping life in Estonia open."
"The more places there are where people can get their shot quickly and conveniently, the more reason we have to face the fall with confidence. I want to thank the defense forces for coming to our aid in this," Seer went on, calling the current situation a race against time even as vaccinations continues to go ahead.
The Musitka Center's EDF vaccine center is situated in the mall's parking lot and is open 11.00 a.m. to 5 p.m. August 10 and again August 12, with more dates scheduled, through to October.
The Moderna and Janssen vaccines are available at the center, BNS reports, the first of these is available to minors from age 12 (parental consent needed) while the Janssen dose is a one-shot product available to 18s and over.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
