Coronavirus infection rate rises alarmingly in Finland

The coronavirus situation is rapidly worsening in Finland, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

Over the past two weeks, the number and incidence of cases has risen sharply in almost all regions, said an official press release on Thursday.

This worsening situation prompted the authority to take immediate and proactive response.

Regional authorities were asked to adopt new effective ways to prevent infections and introduce yet more restrictive measures to stop the upward trend.

Throughout the epidemic, the majority of new cases have been reported in the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa. The incidence remained high in the hospital district during the period of 23–29 November. There are now a lot of new cases in the rest of the country, too.

During the period of 23–29 November, a total of 3,023 new cases were reported to the communicable diseases register, showing an increase of 444 cases on the previous week.

The incidence of new cases was 55 per 100,000 inhabitants. It was 47 per 100,000 inhabitants in the preceding week (16–22 November).

The total number of new cases in the last two-week period (16–29 November) was 5,620, which was 2,559 cases more than in the preceding two-week period.

The rise in the incidence of new cases is particularly alarming: it was 101 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two-week compared to 55 cases per 100,000 inhabitant in the preceding two-week period.

The breakdown of positive COVID-19 cases by age group has not changed much in the past three weeks. Younger age groups and working-age adults still account for the majority of new cases. During the period of 23–29 November, people under 50 years of age accounted for around 75 per cent of all cases and people under 30 years of age for nearly 40 per cent of the cases.

On Wednesday, a total of 165 patients were receiving hospital care due to the COVID-10 disease, and 21 of them were in intensive care. The average age of COVID-19 patients in intensive care has been the same, 57 years, throughout the epidemic, and some 55 per cent of the patients have been aged under 60 years.

It is estimated that about 18,100 people, which is over 70 per cent of all confirmed cases, have recovered from the disease. The total number of confirmed cases in Finland now stands at 25,882. There have been 408 deaths related to the disease till Wednesday.