Finland has registered 118 coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) infections and 2 more deaths in the last 24 hours. They seem few compared to other countries, but they can increase dramatically in the next few days because the disease has hit nursing homes.
To date, 2,605 cases of Covid-19 have been found throughout the country and the total number of fatalities reported is 42. These data have been extracted from the daily reports released by the Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL, in its Finnish acronym).
The age is known for 28 of the deaths.There are two dead between the ages of 40 and 59, seven between the ages of 60 and 79, and 19 over the age of 80. The median age of the deceased remains unchanged, 84 years.
The vast majority of the deaths (25 or 60%) has taken place in the hospital area that includes the capital region (HYKS).
Nursing homes
However, on Thursday no deaths in the Helsinki metropolitan area were reported by THL. Instead, one of the fatalities occurred in the hospital region around the city of Turku (TYKS) and another one in the region of North Savo (KYS).
In this area, which has Kuopio as the main city, the total number of victims is 13, more than half that of Helsinki.
Why does this region with less than a quarter million inhabitants has so many fatalities compared to other more populated areas? The explanation is that the virus has affected there nursing, where people who are most at risk live.
According to the count made by the health authorities, around 10 people would have died in geriatric centers being diagnosed with the virus. Coronavirus may have also killed a dozen of elderly people in nursing homes of Helsinki.
In intensive care
On Thursday the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients rose to 244, three more than the day before. And the number of people admitted to intensive care units is now 82.
An interesting statistical change is that the percentage of female population infected is growing. Currently there are more infected women (50.7%) than men (49.3%).
According to THL, to date, Finnish laboratories have taken samples from more than 39,000 people.
