Finland records 17 coronavirus deaths in 72 hours

Finland reported Monday 17 more deaths from coronavirus. These 17 deaths were recorded since Friday, the last day that the health authorities had made public the number of fatalities associated to the Covid-19 disease.

Of the new deaths reported, 6 occurred in the Kuopio hospital district, 5 in the Helsinki region, 3 in the Tampere area, 2 in Turku and 1 in Oulu.

These fatalities bring the total death toll in Finland to 506 since the pandemic started. Most of those fatalities (357) occurred in the capital region, the epicenter of the epidemic and the worst hit area.

In addition, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), reported 832 new infections detected during the weekend and Monday. Specifically, 271 new cases were reported on Saturday 19 December, 309 cases on Sunday 20 December and 252 on Monday 21 December.

So far, the total number of diagnosed cases in the Nordic country amounts to 33,414.

Source: THL.

More patients in hospitals

The number of people hospitalized due to the Covid-19 disease increased by 18, to 281, compared to 72 hours before. Of them, 33 are in intensive care units, which is 3 more than last Friday.

However, the country's incidence of new cases continues to decrease. According to THL, at the time of writing this article it was 93.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks for the whole country (last Friday it was 102.1). 

However, the situation varies depending on the region.

In the Helsinki-Uusimaa area, the most populated part of the country, the incidence for the preceding 14 days was 165.9 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, THL's figures show.

In contrast, in the Lapland hospital district the incidence is much lower, 23 cases per 100,000 residents.

Currently, the lowest incidence in Finland is in the Central Ostrobothnia hospital district, whose main city is Kokkola, where only 6.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.