Hmmm yes, I read you wrong there. I also see the problem now given that that camera is actually on the left, well observed by you.
Do you remember that bluetooth-keyboard available for the Iphone (and others) that is attached to it as a slide-out, and the community wanted to get the same thing fitted for the N9? This one has a hole in the back where the Iphone's camera is when in closed position, so it's possible to take a picture.
The hole in the keyboard is no problem when you slide it out, because it remains covered by the overlapping portion of the screen.

The same keyboard (or one with the same build), attached to the Jolla, would cover the camera when in closed position, but it could be fitted so as to have the hole over the cam when in opened position. That would be pretty awkward, needing to slide out the qwerty to use the cam.
Some more ways I can imagine it:
- To use the phone in landscape mode, it is tilted to the right (unlike any other phone out there, haha), the qwerty half working just like I described above with that Iphone kb with a hole in it, and everybody would hate having to adjust to doing things the other way round.
- Normal tilt-left-for-landscape:
The qwerty half is not as wide (or tall) as the Jolla, so it doesn't reach the left (or top) edge and won't cover the lens. That would make it a bit funny to hold, might have a lop-sided feeling to it, but the difference in width wouldn't need to be more than 2 cm I guess - maybe still in alignment with the actual edge of the screen, depending on width of bezel - as the lens seems very close to the left (or top) edge...
- Thinking more gimmicky, James-Bond-like, the leftmost column of keys functions as a lens cover. When you wanna use the cam, that leftmost column (or even only its lower part, just wide enough to uncover the lens and flash) can be pressed down (or to the right) to vanish into the rest of the qwerty (which is in closed position). That would be the gesture with which one usually opens a standard lens cover :-D
Sounds fun, doesn't it? Someone has to make a sketch of this...