Number of COVID-19 patients in hospital on rise

Over the past four weeks, the weekly number of new COVID-19 inpatients in specialised healthcare has gone up from 60 to 109, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a joint press release on Thursday.

Between 4 and 10 October, there were a total of 109 new COVID-19 inpatients in specialised healthcare. Last week, there were 22 new inpatients in intensive care, which is the same as the week before.

On 10 October, the total number of inpatients in specialised healthcare was 124, with 29 of them being inpatients in intensive care.

Over the past two weeks, the number of inpatients has grown particularly in other wards in specialised healthcare.

On 13 October 2021, the total number of COVID-19-related deaths reported to the communicable diseases register was 1,111.

The risk of being hospitalised to receive specialised healthcare is significantly higher for unvaccinated people than for those who have been vaccinated twice.

Over the last two-week period, unvaccinated people between the ages of 12 to 79 who have COVID-19 have received specialised healthcare 19 times more often than those in the same age group who have been vaccinated twice.

The risk of being hospitalised to receive specialised healthcare has been highest among unvaccinated people aged 50−79. The risk is 24 times higher for them than for those in the same age group who have been vaccinated twice.

The incidence of new COVID-19 cases over the last two-week period was 140 per 100,000 inhabitants. This is over 30 per cent more than in the preceding two-week period when the incidence of cases was 105 per 100,000 inhabitants. However, the weekly number of new COVID-19 cases has remained almost the same for the past two weeks.

On 13 October, 85 per cent of the target population for COVID-19 vaccination in Finland, i.e. people who are 12 years of age or over, had received at least one vaccine dose and 74 per cent two vaccine doses.

According to the current estimate, it is still possible to achieve 80 per cent vaccination coverage by the end of October, if the increase in the vaccine uptake does not slow down.

The amended guidelines on testing have affected the number of conducted COVID-19 tests. The number of tests conducted between 4 and 10 October was only about 1,900 fewer than the week before.

Lower testing volumes, targeting of testing and possible undetected cases of COVID-19 in the population have been reflected as an increase in the percentage of positive cases in recent weeks.

The proportion of positive cases of all samples taken between 4 and 10 October was 5 per cent. The figure is about the same as the week before when it was 4.9 per cent.

The epidemiological situation is monitored weekly. The monitoring report of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare is published on the Institute’s webpage ‘Monitoring reports on the hybrid strategy’ on Thursday afternoons.