"A certain number of doses have been ordered, but as a result of high demand, it has not arrived in Estonia yet, we hope that it will arrive in the near future," Irina Dontšenko, adviser to the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Health Board, told Vikerraadio's "Uudis +".

The target group will be people who have been exposed to an infected person and are at risk of contracting the virus, the Health Board's immunization committee has agreed.

"But of course, we don't need to vaccinate the entire population. There is no such risk," Dontšenko said.

However, if an outbreak occurs in the future the vaccine could be distributed more widely to groups who are susceptible to infection.

Seventy-two doses of the monkeypox drug Tecovirimat have also been ordered.

"Estonia will initially order for itself, but if we have any leftover, we will share this medicine with Latvia and Lithuania as well," said Dontšenko.

So far, less than 10 cases of monkeypox have been diagnosed in Estonia.

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