Coronavirus infections on rise in Helsinki

The number of coronavirus infections has been increasing even more in Helsinki during the last few days, said the City of Helsinki in a press release on Monday.

More than 100 new cases were diagnosed in a day, and the incidence rate on 16 August was 137 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days. A corresponding rise in infections is seen elsewhere in Europe, too.

More than half of infections have been passed on in restaurants and bars and during other leisure time activities in Finland. Infections going back to the European football championships are becoming rarer. Infections right now are most common among young adults, and the majority have been caused by the virus’ delta variant.

As yet, the growing number of infections has not badly affected health care in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Covid-19 tracing, on the other hand, has been very busy. Right now, it is essential that anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to the coronavirus make sure they don’t pass on the disease to others.

“The corona crisis is not over yet. Although it’s summer and holiday time, it is extremely important that we all take our share of the responsibility for fighting the epidemic. We all need to get vaccinated as soon as possible in our turn. Anyone who has symptoms should stay in quarantine,” Jan Vapaavuori, Mayor of Helsinki said, adding that the situation in hospitals is still under control.

The proportion of positive test has been on the rise, too, and was up at 3.3 per cent on Friday 16 July.