337 new coronavirus deaths reported in 2 weeks in Finland

The coronavirus death toll in the country has reached 3,589 till Sunday as a total of 337 new deaths were reported in the last two weeks (4 April to 17 April).

In the preceding two-week period the figure was 406, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a joint press release on Thursday..

The average age (median) of those who have died during the epidemic is 83 years. The number of COVID-19-related deaths reflects the wide-scale spread of infections in the entire population during the Omicron wave.

The number of COVID-19 patients in specialised and primary healthcare has decreased slightly.

Between 4 and 17 April, more than 700 new COVID-19 patients were admitted to specialised healthcare.

At the national level, the number of new patients in specialised healthcare has remained quite high.

However, the need for intensive care is declining. Between 4 and 17 April, a total of 55 new COVID-19 patients were admitted to intensive care, while in the preceding two-week period (21 March–3 April) the number was 84.

On Wednesday 20 April, about one third of COVID-19 patients in intensive care and other wards in specialised healthcare were being treated mainly for some other reason than COVID-19.

On Wednesday, the total number of COVID-19 inpatients in primary healthcare was 505.

The number of patients in primary healthcare grew sharply at the turn of 2021–2022.

The estimated effective basic reproduction number is 0.80–0.90 with a 90 per cent probability.

Last time the number was 0.85–0.95. A value of just below 1 indicates that there is a possible downward trend in the epidemic at the level of overall population.

Based on the wastewater samples collected last week (10–11 April 2022), the overall levels of coronavirus RNA in Finland’s wastewater have remained high.

However, during the last five times when the levels of coronavirus RNA in wastewater have been measured, the levels have remained stable and have not increased.

In Finland, 87.4 per cent of people who are 18 years of age or over have received at least two vaccine doses and 63.8 per cent three vaccine doses. A total of 85.8 per cent of people aged 60 or over have received three vaccine doses, and 44 per cent of people over 80 years of age who have received three vaccine doses have also received a fourth vaccine dose.

A fourth vaccine dose is recommended for people aged 12 or over who have a severely weakened immune system, people aged 80 or over and all older people living in residential care homes.