Number of COVID patients in ICU rises alarmingly

About 13,400 new COVID-19 cases were reported between 13 and 19 December in Finland, while in the previous week the number of new cases was about 10,600, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a joint press release on Tuesday.

On 20 December, the total number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant was 83. The burden on hospital care and, in particular, intensive care unit (ICU) is increasing.

In the last 14 days (between 4 and 17 December), the incidence of new cases was 408 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In the previous two weeks (between 20 November and 3 December), the incidence of new cases was 307 per 100,000 inhabitants.

At the end of last week, the total number of patients in specialised healthcare was 184, of whom 126 were in inpatient care and 58 in intensive care. On 20 December, 177 patients were in specialised healthcare and 64 in intensive care.

The burden on hospital care is now spread more evenly across the country than before. On 20 December, the total number of COVID-19-related deaths reported to the communicable diseases register was 1,493 and 60 per cent of the reported deaths were among people over 80 years of age.

On 19 December, 83.3 per cent of those aged 12 and over had received at least two vaccine doses in Finland. At the same time, the number of those having received the third dose is nearly 770,000.

In recent weeks, testing for coronavirus has been very active. A total of 150,000–154,000 tests per week were carried out between 6 and 19 December. The number of positive test results has increased. In the last 14 days, 8.1 per cent of all samples taken were positive, whereas in the previous 14 days the share was 6.1 per cent.