The Covid-19 virus continues to spread in Finland, now mainly among unvaccinated young people and adults, says the latest monitoring report on the epidemic released by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
During the last week, the number of new coronavirus diagnosed cases has continued to fall across the country, but figures show that the favourable development reported last week has slowed down. The total number of new cases reported between 23 and 29 August was 4,064. This is about 300 cases fewer than in the preceding week, when 4,386 Covid-19 infections were reported to the Communicable Diseases Register.
Now the virus - which has claimed 1,030 lives in Finland since the pandemic broke out - has found its preferred victims among unvaccinated people, both young and adults.
The virus takes advantage of the slow progress of the vaccination campaign in the Nordic country, which is lagging behind compared to other European states. Just three days ago, the European Commission celebrated that 70% of adults in the EU were already vaccinated, but that percentage was only 59% in Finland at the time.
If the population as a whole is taken into account, health authorities said Thursday that about 72% of Finnish residents have received their first vaccine dose and 50% are fully vaccinated. More than 80% of those over 40 have received their first dose, but the rate at which young adults are getting vaccinated has also slowed down.
More cases among children
Currently, the epidemic is spreading the most among unvaccinated working-age people, but case rates have started to fall among them. More and more cases have been reported among children following the wave of the epidemic this summer.
The incidence of new cases over the last two-week period (16–29 August) was 152 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Based on the information provided by the hospital districts, 97 people were receiving hospital care due to the Covid-19 disease on 1 September 2021. Of them, 26 were inpatients in primary healthcare, 50 in specialised healthcare and 21 in intensive care.
