Event of 10+ should be avoided at Metropolitan area

The metropolitan area’s coronavirus coordination group on Friday recommended that events of more than 10 people should be avoided in the metropolitan area until further notice to arrest the surge of coronavirus infection.

The group in a press briefing reported of the epidemic situation and forecast, as well as of the cooperation and preparedness for curbing the epidemic, said the City of Helsinki in a press release.

The earlier recommendation was for events of more than 20 persons.

The recommendation will be applicable for Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen areas.

The recommendation concerns, for example, student events, graduation parties in the autumn, and Christmas festivities. The group is also preparing a face mask usage recommendation for the early childhood education personnel.

Earlier, the group on 9 November introduced a face mask usage recommendation for the entire personnel of comprehensive schools.

The last few weeks have seen signs of an accelerating epidemic regardless of the valid measures. Therefore, the area’s coronavirus coordination group has prepared new recommendations and measures, which can be deployed quickly and immediately, if the epidemic situation so requires.

This means that new measures might already be introduced in the current acceleration phase of the epidemic before the possible spreading phase.

The use of face masks has significantly increased in the area’s public transport.

The cities of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, and the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland established a regional metropolitan area coronavirus coordination group on 10 September 2020.

The City of Helsinki is responsible for organising the group’s operations.