The entire Finnish government cabinet will work from home at least until the end of this week, after two ministers and, separately, a senior politician, may have been exposed to coronavirus.
Minister of Social Affairs and Health Aino-Kaisa Pekonen (Left) and Minister of Labour Tuula Haatainen (SDP) might have come into contact on Tuesday with someone suspected of having coronavirus. That person has been tested and results will be available within two days.
Pekonen and Haatainen will self-isolate as a precaution and the Prime Minister has instructed the rest of the cabinet to stay at home and work remotely until the results of the test is known. “Let’s take care of each other”, former presidential candidate Haatainen writes on Twitter.
Ministers, senior advisers and other politicians have been involved in long days of meetings at the House of the Estates in Helsinki during the coronavirus crisis. Those in attendance are required to exercise social distancing with their seating, and are in any case divided among two large halls and connected by video link.
However there is a possibility of individual contacts between participants outside the scope of the formal meetings.
Meanwhile the Chairman of the Centre Party Parliamentary Group Antti Kurvinen has said he’s also going into self-isolation after possibly being exposed to coronavirus.
He says the possible exposure happened at a Centre Party ministerial group meeting today, and that he’ll get a coronavirus test as soon as possible.
