Coronavirus spreading steadily

Although Finland has succeeded in curbing the epidemic in many regions, the virus has spread throughout the country, and new cases have been reported in large numbers in many hospital districts.

The number of new COVID-19 cases has remained at the same level as the week before, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a joint press release on Thursday.

So far, there is no clear evidence that the virus variants would have started to spread through the population in Finland, but the risk of them spreading is considerable.

Finland is also closely monitoring the impact of the new virus variants on the development of the epidemic. So far, a total of 232 cases of infection with the new variants have been confirmed in the country.

The need for hospital care has, however, been decreasing for several weeks now.

Between 1 and 7 February, over 2,500 new cases were reported to the communicable diseases register, showing a decrease of nearly 200 cases on the previous week. The incidence of new cases was 45 per 100,000 inhabitants, while in the previous week it was 49 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The total number of new cases in the last two-week period (25 January–7 February) was slightly more than 5,200, which is 1,100 cases more than that in the preceding two-week period.

The incidence of new cases was 94 per 100,000 inhabitants, while in the preceding two-week period it was 74 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Currently, the estimated basic reproduction number is 0.95–1.1, with a 90 per cent probability.

In Finland as a whole, the source of infection was traced in over 60% of all new cases. Currently, most of the new cases are reported about working-age adults and, more specifically, young adults. Nearly one-fourth of all new cases were reported among people aged 20–29.

The percentage of people over 60 years of age of those infected has decreased slightly.

Between 1 and 7 February, people aged over 60 accounted for about 8% of those infected, whereas between 18 and 31 January, they accounted for 11% of those infected.

Slightly over 11,000 people were quarantined between 1 and 7 February, which is about 2,500 people less than that in the previous week. More than one-fourth of all new cases were reported among people already in quarantine.

On 11 February, a total of 112 coronavirus patients, including 16 in intensive care units (ICUs), are now undergoing treatment at different hospitals. So far the total number of deaths related to the disease was 708.