Covid-19 incidence soars in Finland among unvaccinated people

The number of new Covid-19 cases continues to fall in Finland, but the number is still high, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said in a statement.

Currently the main concern in Finland is unvaccinated people, who are suffering more infections and need hospital care more often.

Finland has a considerable segment of the population that refuses to be vaccinated. Those people who have carried out public campaigns, some of their members even going to schools to discourage children from getting inoculated.

According to the latest monitoring report on the epidemic, the total number of new cases reported between 30 August and 5 September was 3,842. This is about 300 cases fewer than the week before when the figure was 4,175.

The incidence of new cases over the last two-week period was 145 per 100,000 inhabitants. This is 16% less than in the preceding two-week period when the incidence of cases was 172 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Health authorities stress that the risk of contracting the disease is considerably greater for unvaccinated people. Over the past two weeks, the incidence rate has been highest in relative terms among unvaccinated 10–49-year-olds, standing at about 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

However, the incidence of cases has been very low in all age groups of people who have received a full course of vaccination. Even in most age groups of people who have received their first vaccine dose, the incidence was over 50% lower than in unvaccinated people.

The burden on specialised healthcare has remained unchanged over the past few weeks. The burden is now about one third of what it was during the peak months of the epidemic in spring 2020. The majority of those in need of hospital care are unvaccinated.

In Finland, 82.4% of people over 12 years of age have received their first vaccine dose and 61.3% their second dose.

Hospital care

Based on the information provided by the hospital districts, a total of 98 people were receiving hospital care due to the Covid-19 disease on 8 September 2021. Of them, 25 were inpatients in primary healthcare, 51 inpatients in specialised healthcare and 22 inpatients in intensive care.

Over 169,000 Covid-19 tests were taken last week. The percentage of positive cases has continued to decline, standing at approximately 2.3% last week.

Of all new cases, 5% originated from abroad and 0.3% were further infections resulting from them.

Between 30 August and 5 September, a total of 11,849 people were quarantined, which is almost the same number as the week before.

The total number of deaths related to the Covid-19 disease in Finland is 1,039.