Coronavirus spreads fast in big cities

Seven regions in the country reported having entered the acceleration phase of coronavirus infections on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

These regions are the Hospital Districts of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Kanta-Häme, Länsi-Pohja, Pirkanmaa, Vaasa and Southwest Finland, and the Åland Islands, said a government press release on Thursday.

The remaining 14 hospital districts are at a stable level, but there are individual cities and towns situated in some of these hospital districts that have entered the acceleration phase. These cities and towns are Kouvola, Kuopio, Siilinjärvi, and Rovaniemi.

In the biggest cities in Finland (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere and Turku), the number of cases has increased. In many regions, however, the epidemic has been brought well under control, and as a result, the epidemiological situation has calmed down in these regions. This is the case in Vaasa, for example.

Most of the new cases are still reported among young adults, but the number of cases has increased slightly among older age groups, too.

Currently, more than half of the infections that are traced (56 per cent) have been contracted from people living in the same household.

Cases where the virus had been contracted in various social situations (private gatherings or gatherings among friends and family) accounted for 15 per cent of the cases. In about 10 per cent of the cases, the virus had spread at workplaces, and in about seven per cent of the cases, it had spread through recreational activities.

The number of patients requiring hospital and intensive care is still relatively low, although the number of patients has grown in recent weeks. On 11 November 2020, a total of 73 patients were receiving hospital care for COVID-19with 14 of them under intensive care.

Finland still has good opportunities to keep the situation relatively stable by international comparison.