Vaccinated travellers’ COVID-19 certificates will be checked randomly at Helsinki’s Airport, as it created the “green line” in order to expedite the processing of travellers who have been fully immunized against the virus.
Up to this point, COVID-19 certificates of travellers from other countries have been checked at Helsinki’s Airport upon departure, at check-in as well as upon their arrival.
According to Mayor of Vantaa, Ritva Viljanen, such a line has been designed for fully vaccinated persons who make up nearly 90 per cent of all travellers, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Viljanen said that “the change was necessary to alleviate chaos at the airport,” stressing that “now there will no longer be huge queuing situations.”
Last week, Finland’s airport operator Finavia stressed that while the number of passengers continues to increase, the comprehensive screening process would become very difficult.
Finavia stressed that the passenger volumes are foreseen to double until the end of this year.
“When the vaccination coverage in Finland is already at a good level, and the majority of newcomers are vaccinated, comprehensive screening activities are no longer justified from the point of view of epidemic management,” the former civil aviation authority pointed out in this regard, as reported by YLE.
According to Finavia, the verification of COVID-19 documents is the responsibility of the travel operator while stressing that such documents are no longer routinely controlled at borders.
Last week, Finland’s government announced that it decided to prolong entry restrictions for unvaccinated travellers until the end of this year.
In this regard, the Finnish Minister of Social Affairs, Krista Kiuru, stressed that such measures are similar to other EU countries’ restrictions imposed to stop the further spread of the virus.
According to her, travellers who have not been vaccinated against the Coronavirus must undergo a testing process upon their arrival in Finland until at least the end of this year. However, she clarified that fully vaccinated travellers are exempted from the testing requirement.
The Finnish government emphasized that border controls will be kept in place as long as at least 80 per cent of the population in Finland is fully immunized against the virus.
Soon after being announced, the decision started to be criticized by many people in Finland.
The Mayor of Vantaa, as well as Finland’s tourism industry, also expressed their concerns regarding the government’s decision to keep in place its restrictions for another period.
“We were expecting the government to start relaxing and tearing down the restrictions,” the managing director of Visit Rovaniemi, Sanna Kärkkäinen, pointed out in this regard, as reported by Helsinki Times.
According to her, as the vaccination coverage is good, the situation should’ve been changed, stressing that such a decision was “a big disappointment.”
