HELSINKI — Finland plans to vaccinate all people over age 12 for a third time with a coronavirus vaccine shot after getting the expected approval from a state health panel later this year.

Finland has already entered into a procurement agreement for coronavirus vaccines, according to the minister for family affairs and social services Krista Kiuru. Booster shots are currently offered in Finland only to the estimated 50,000 people suffering from severely weakened immune systems, including cancer patients and people who have received organ transplants.

Hanna Nohynek, the chief physician for the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, says the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to cause similar side effects.

Some 73% of Finland’s entire population have received a first coronavirus vaccine shot and 59% have gotten the second shot.