10,500 COVID infections diagnosed in a week, 98 deaths in 2 weeks

More than 10,500 new coronavirus infections were diagnosed in Finland between 6 and 12 December, said the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in a joint press release on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a total of 98 coronavirus deaths were reported in the country in the last two weeks (1– 15 December).

The incidence of new infections continued to increase over the last 14-day period, standing at 360 per 100,000 inhabitants at the end of last week.

About 145,000 tests are carried out weekly.

On 15 December 2021, the total number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in Finland was 34. In addition, preliminary screening tests indicate that cases of the Omicron variant are clearly increasing.

The need for hospital and intensive care remains considerably high throughout the country.

At the end of last week (12 December 2021), the total number of patients in specialised healthcare was 171, of whom 119 were in inpatient care and 52 in intensive care. Last week, a total of 137 new COVID-19 inpatients were admitted to specialised healthcare.

A total of 36 new COVID-19 patients were admitted to intensive care last week. Over the past four weeks, the weekly number of COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care has varied between 32 and 39.

On 15 December 2021, the total number of COVID-19-related deaths reported to the communicable diseases register stood at 1,446.

In the past two weeks (1– 15 December), a total of 98 new deaths were reported, and 78 per cent of these (76 deaths) were reported among people over 70 years of age.

By 15 December, 87.4 per cent of people in Finland who are 12 years of age or over had received at least one vaccine dose, 82.9 per cent at least two vaccine doses and 11.5 per cent three vaccine doses.

More than 145,700 COVID-19 tests were taken between 6 and 12 December. Unlike in the previous weeks when the number of tests was increasing, the number has now slightly decreased from the week before. About 153,300 COVID-19 tests were taken between 29 November and 5 December. The proportion of positive cases of all samples taken last week was 7.2 per cent. Between 15 November and 5 December, the figure was 6.2–6.3 per cent.