Finland records 18 new coronavirus infections over the weekend

The Covid-19 virus refuses to disappear from Finland, although its incidence remains still low compared to other countries.

The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL, in its Finnish acronym), reported 18 new cases on Monday 27 July, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 7,398.

No deaths were recorded over the weekend, so the Finnish death toll remained unchanged at 329. The last deceased was reported on Friday 24 July.

The region of Helsinki-Uusimaa remains as the worst-hit area by the epidemic. And it is also the area where 13 of the last 18 reported cases have been diagnosed.

According to official figures, to date, 5,403 cases of Covid-19 have been found in the capital metropolitan area. Of them, 2,772 have been diagnosed in the city of Helsinki.

To date, the Helsinki university hospital special catchment area (HYKS) reported 271 fatalities (82.3% of the country's total). This means four out of every five deaths caused by the novel coronavirus have occurred in the Helsinki hospital area. The second hospital region with the most deaths is Kuopio (KYS), which recorded 25 fatalities.

Source: THL.

Helsinki-Uusimaa is also the region showing the highest incidence of infections: there are 320.5 diagnosed cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

For the whole country, the average incidence rate is less than half that in Helsinki: 134 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to THL.

In hospitals

The pressure on Finnish hospitals caused by the novel coronavirus is almost non-existent. On Monday, the official number of patients hospitalized due to the Covid-19 disease was 5. None of them were admitted to intensive care units.

According to a preliminary estimate by THL, around 6,920 people may have already recovered from the disease, which is over 90% of the reported cases.

To date, Finnish laboratories have taken samples from approximately 341,000 people.