On Tuesday 28 April, the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) reported 45 more coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) infections. With them, the total number of laboratory-diagnosed cases rose to 4,740.
The health agency also reported 6 new deaths caused by the disease, bringing the total number of Covid-19 fatalities in Finland to 199.
The health agency has disclosed a few details regarding 145 of the dead. The majority of them (over 90%) had one or more long-term illnesses, says THL. The most common of these have been heart disease and diabetes.
According to THL, of those who died, only 21% had received special hospital care. This includes intensive care. Among the others, 29% had received treatment in primary health care centers, 49% in social care units such as nursing homes and 1% "at home or elsewhere."
Source: THL
As for the ages, there are less than 5 deaths in each of the age groups 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59. There are 9 dead in the 60-69 age group; 30 in the 70-79; other 69 dead in the 80-89 age group, and there are 32 people in their 90s.
52% of the dead are men and 48% women. The median age of the deceased is 84 years.
Helsinki, Oulu, Kuopio and Turku
According to THL information, the 6 new deaths reported on Tuesday happened in areas previously hit by the disease.
2 of those fatalities occurred in the Helsinki-Uusimaa hospital region (HYKS), other 2 in the Oulu region (OYS), 1 in the health area which has Kuopio University Hospital (KYS) as the main facility and the other one in the Turku+Åland region (TYKS).
On Tuesday, the official number of patients hospitalized due to coronavirus was 200. And the number of people admitted to intensive care units was 56, the same as in the previous day.
Helsinki-Uusimaa remains the epicenter and region hardest hit by the epidemic. According to official figures, to date, 3,243 cases of Covid-19 have been found in the capital metropolitan area. Of them, 1,790 in the city of Helsinki. So far, the vast majority of deaths (159) have been reported in Helsinki metropolitan area.
Helsinki-Uusimaa is also the region with the highest incidence of infections: 192.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The region with the second highest incidence of the virus is North West Finland (Länsi Pohja), at the Swedish border, which has 179.1 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
In relation to the total Finnish population (5,543,233), the average incidence is 85 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to a preliminary estimate by THL, there are at least 2,800 people who may have already recovered from the disease.
To date, Finnish laboratories have taken samples from approximately 85,800 people.
