Finland sees lower coronavirus infections, faces importation risk

The weekly number of COVID-19 cases in Finland decreased to about one third of compared to the infections in the first week of May, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a joint press release on Thursday.

Last week (14–20 June), however, the downward trend in the number of cases slowed down.

A total of 514 new cases were reported to the communicable diseases register, showing a decrease of about 40 cases from the previous week.

Around 27 per cent of the new cases were reported among people already in quarantine. The percentage of cases where the virus was contracted abroad grew. These cases accounted for 33 per cent of all new cases, while in the previous week, they accounted for 19 per cent of the cases.

The incidence of new cases over the last two weeks (7–20 June) was 19 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 29 in the preceding two-week period.

Over the past month, the COVID-19 situation has improved considerably in the majority of the areas. In fact, most areas are recording only a small number of new cases, if any.

Currently, only the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa is in the acceleration phase of the epidemic. The other hospital districts are mainly at a stable level, with only a few municipalities in the acceleration phase.

The estimated effective basic reproduction number is still below one, 0.55–0.75, with a 90 per cent probability.

Based on the information provided by the hospital districts, a total of 33 people were receiving hospital care due to the COVID-19 disease on 23 June 2021. Of them, 4 were inpatients in primary healthcare, 24 inpatients in specialised healthcare and 5 inpatients in intensive care.

According to the forecasts, the number of periods in specialised healthcare and intensive care in Finland continues to fall over the next week.

The number of conducted COVID-19 tests is decreasing slightly. Between 14 and 20 June, about 90,000 tests were taken, which is around 6,000 tests fewer than the week before. The proportion of positive tests was 0.6 per cent, which is about the same as in the preceding weeks.

News agency Xinhua adds: Pasi Pohjola, a director at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, told a press conference on Thursday that the home travel by dual citizens and the arrival of seasonal workers were among the causes for COVID-19 importation.

The testing system at Finnish borders functions well, said Otto Helve, director of the department for contagious diseases and vaccinations at THL, urging for voluntary reduction of contacts until a second COVID-19 test.

Almost 3.2 million people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Finland, accounting for about 57 percent of the population.