No coronavirus risk through imported, posted goods: THL

The use and handling of goods and foods imported or posted from the epidemic area in China does not involve a risk of the coronavirus infection in Finland, said the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a media release on Thursday.

The THL also said that more information is still required before many of the questions regarding the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus can be answered.

However, there is currently no evidence of the Wuhan coronavirus being able to spread through imported goods and no infections contracted this way have been found.

Coronaviruses typically do not survive on surfaces in varying temperatures for several days. The most efficient way for them to spread is droplet infection.

Meanwhile, the number of people possibly exposed to Wuhan coronavirus has increased to 24 on Thursday from a previous estimate of 15, reported national broadcaster Yle, quoting Markku Broas, head of infectious diseases at the Lapland Central Hospital, as saying.

The hospital sources said that the majority of the suspected people to the disease are foreigners, although there were some local people also.

Broas told Yle that one of the persons exposed to infection has already left Finland for Asia.

Earlier, a suspected case of Wuhan coronavirus infection was confirmed on Wednesday in Finnish Lapland.

This is the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus infection in Finland.

The coronavirus is known as 2019-nCoV, or more commonly as the Wuhan coronavirus, named after Wuhan City, China—the virus’s epicentre.

The patient is a Chinese tourist, a woman in her early 30s, who arrived first at the Ivalo Health Centre and later was transferred to the Lapland Central Hospital in Rovaniemi.