People under the age of 60, who do not have any serious chronic illnesses, will not be able to get vaccinated against coronavirus this year because Estonia has only bought enough doses for those in high-risk groups.

However, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (Tervisekassa) still has around 12,000 doses of the vaccine left over from bought last year, which will not be used. According to Professor of Virology Irja Lutsar, the new vaccine should be used to protect those people most at risk, but healthy people could also be vaccinated if they are with an elderly relative.

"These older vaccines work for the current strain, especially when it comes to developing severe illness, if we take hospitalization as a marker of a severe form of illness. Although the impact of this is a bit lower than with the new vaccines," Lutsar said.

Previous coronavirus vaccines have also primarily protected against severe forms of the virus, according to Lutsar.

However, unlike Lutsar, the Health Insurance Fund, does not consider it a good move to use the vaccines developed to combat the previous strain as they are no longer effective.

"The Committee on Immunoprophylaxis has recommended against the use of these earlier versions of the vaccine as they are not effective. And in fact, it is not ethical to offer them to people today when we actually know that they do not provide adequate protection," said Hanna Jäe, head of the vaccination service at the Health Insurance Fund.

Although officially the coronavirus vaccine is only for the elderly and those with chronic illnesses, in reality there is hope others might be able to get it too..

"This is what people see, and this is what we know. It's a fantastically long list, it's where you can determine who is at risk because of different conditions and medication, and of course all kinds of decisions a doctor makes are based on how well  they know their patients," said family doctor Aleksandr Komarov.

Doses of the coronavirus vaccine come packaged in batches of six, and the Estonian Health Board (Terviseamet) says it would be wise to make sure none go to waste.

"Of course, the preference would be that this vaccine for high-risk groups will be used to vaccinate those in high-risk groups, but at the same time, if there is a choice between throwing away a dose (or giving it to someone who is not in a high-risk group – ed.), then let's say it's also an organizational issue on the ground," said Kärt Sõber, head of the Health Board.

Demand for vaccination among Estonia's elderly population is worryingly low, according to the Health Board. While 15 percent of the countries seniors have been vaccinated against influenza, only two percent have received the coronavirus vaccine so far, with the season when both are most common just beginning.

This year, the Health Insurance Fund bought 102,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines, almost twenty percent less than in 2023.

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