AFP - Lehtikuva - Norbert Millauer

Tuija Leino, a vaccination specialist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), said Thursday that the government would probably offer swine influenza vaccination to all members of the public.

But the health ministry said drug manufacturers' rate of output was slower than previously thought, adding the last shipments were not expected in Finland before late February.

Merja Saarinen, a senior civil servant at the health ministry, said the quantity of vaccine needed to cover vulnerable groups like healthcare workers and pregnant mothers would be in Finland in a fortnight.

Dr Leino told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that the public's enthusiasm to accept the vaccine had risen on the back of two deaths from swine flu.

The government claimed that the vaccination programme had already prevented at least 50,000 contractions.

With about 1,500 confirmed swine flu cases and the epidemic making its way south from northern Finland, the government also announced that the opening hours of a national swine flu hotline would be expanded from the current midday to 6pm at the beginning of next week.

STT