According to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland is the only European country that has not yet distributed a fourth coronavirus vaccination to adults under the age of 60.
The paper reports that the government's coronavirus ministerial working group is scheduled to decide on a recommendation on Wednesday, according to which municipalities can give a state-provided fourth vaccination to all adults.
However, according to HS's information, the working group does not intend to issue a recommendation on who should receive a fourth dose. This will be left to experts and the municipalities themselves to evaluate.
It is not known whether the state would pay the necessary labour costs involved. Up to now, the state has reimbursed municipalities for the costs of coronavirus vaccination programmes.
It is also not yet known, writes HS, how the Institute of Health and Welfare (THL), which issues vaccine recommendations, views the plan. The paper wrote on Friday that THL favours making a fourth vaccination prescription-only, based on individual assessment by a physician.
Helsingin Sanomat points to several practical factors which may delay a decision on the matter, but also that it is not an issue that is arousing political opposition.
At present, Finland has around 1.3 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in stock, and if the plan goes ahead, these will be provided free of charge.
Flu season is coming, are you ready?
Ilta-Sanomat writes that doctors expect this winter's flu season to take off in mid-December.
Markku Broas, chief physician for infectious diseases at Lapland's hospital district, told Iltalehti that November is the ideal time to get the flu jab.
"This allows resistance to build up before the season starts. It takes two weeks for resistance to develop. This is the best time to get vaccinated and for it to last into spring," said Broas.
Peter Nieminen, the Vaasa hospital district's chief physician, told Ilta-Sanomat that seasonal influenza is already spreading and the first cases have been seen in Ostrobothnia.
Nieminen also says that the time is right to get a flu shot. He expects the worst of the flu season to hit around the turn of the year.
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Filling the public coffers
Wednesday is "Tax Day" in Finland, when data of who paid how much on annual earnings is revealed by the Finnish Tax Administration.
Every year, the media rushes to report on the earnings and taxes paid by the highest individual earners, however Iltalehti started the day with a look at which income groups actually pay the largest amount of income tax.
Based on the data compiled by the Taxpayers Association of Finland, people with a total annual income of between 50,000 and 100,000 euros contribute the most in taxes. They make up 13.3 percent of income earners, but pay 33.5 percent of all income taxes in Finland.
"The largest sums come overall from people who work for a living, from the large middle class," says Mikael Kirkko-Jaakkola, chief economist at the Taxpayers Association.
People with annual incomes of 35,000–49,999 euros pay 21.8 percent of income taxes. They make up 17.6 percent of income earners.
But this is not to say that high income earners don't pay their share. People who earn more than 100,000 euros annually make up only 2.5 percent of all income earners but they pay more than a fifth of all income tax revenues.
Storing the sun's heat
Helsingin Uutiset reports on a project in the Kruunuvuori district of the capital that is converting underground facilities originally built to store oil to storage of warm sea water for wintertime home heating.
Huge caverns were blasted out of the bedrock in the area in the 1970s for oil storage. These are 50 meters below sea level with a total capacity of 300 million litres. They are large enough that three Finnish Parliament buildings would fit inside.
Helsinki's Helen power utility and the Skanska construction company are converting them to be filled with surface sea water heated by the sun. Solar energy trapped by blocks of new flats will also be fed into the storage facility.
During the winter months heat exchange pumps will transfer the stored energy into a system to provide heating primarily for around 600 flats in the area, but also for other nearby residential properties.