Press release by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland
Finland preparing to issue EU COVID-19 vaccination certificates to people vaccinated in other countries

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland will start preparing the technical implementation and operating model which will allow Finland to issue the EU COVID-19 vaccination certificate to people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in a non-EU country.

In addition, it will be examined whether it is possible to issue the certificate in case of vaccine products that are listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO).

People who are staying or living in Finland but who have been vaccinated in non-EU countries may be issued with the EU COVID-19 vaccination certificate at the end of October at the earliest.
The EU COVID-19 vaccination certificate has been available to people vaccinated in Finland since 22 June. The EU certificate of a full course of vaccination has also been available to people who have received their first vaccine dose in another EU Member State or in a non-EU country and their second dose in Finland.

In principle, the COVID-19 vaccination certificate is issued by the country where the vaccine was administered. If a person has received the doses required for a full course of vaccination in different EU countries, they will receive a certificate of a full vaccine course from the country where the second dose was administered.

Digital COVID-19 certificates issued by certain non-EU countries can already be digitally checked in EU Member States. Currently, such non-EU countries include Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, San Marino, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the Vatican. The number of countries will increase as the EU and different non-EU countries agree on the interoperability of the certificates.

Each EU Member State can decide for itself what kinds of COVID-19 certificates it requires from incoming travellers.

Further information

Inquiries from the public about COVID-19 certificates in the My Kanta Pages

General advice

• My Kanta Pages customer service: [email protected] 
• Note: The customer service for the My Kanta Pages cannot check or correct people’s personal health data. In such cases, please contact the healthcare unit that treated you.

Errors or shortcomings in COVID-19 certificates:

• Healthcare services: the organisation that administered the vaccine or conducted the COVID-19 test

Certificate requirements of foreign countries and the certificate practices of ship operators and airlines:

• the COVID-19 websites of the destination country or the website and customer service channels of the ship operator or airline
• Re-open EU (europa.eu)

More information for the media

We ask the media to contact the centralised communications channels of organisations according to the following division of responsibilities:

Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela): [email protected]
My Kanta Pages and the issuing of COVID-19 certificates in the My Kanta Pages

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare: [email protected]
National Vaccination Register maintained by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, registering by professionals, regional coverage of information, operating models in healthcare, vaccines administered abroad, paper certificates, validator app

Ministry of Social Affairs and Health: [email protected]
funding of the COVID-19 certificate, overall plan, technical specifications, legal issues, EU preparation, uses of the certificate, certificates as part of entry into the country, prevention of COVID-19 in cross-border traffic, model for entry into the country, practices in other countries, Communicable Diseases Act, government proposal on mandatory health checks at borders

Inquiries by healthcare organisations

We ask healthcare organisations to send their inquiries to the following address: [email protected]