Six more deaths associated with the Covid-19 disease occurred in Finland in the past 72 hours, the Finnish health authorities reported on Monday 15 February.
According to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), these fatalities brought the total death toll in Finland to 716 since the global pandemic started.
Most of the deaths (479) have been recorded in the capital region, the epicenter of the epidemic and the worst hit area.
THL also reported 1,090 new infections detected in the past 72 hours. Specifically, 435 new cases were diagnosed on Saturday 13 February, 321 on Sunday 14 February and 343 on Monday 15 February.
So far, the total number of cases diagnosed in the Nordic country amounts to 50,662, according to THL's tally.
Source: THL.
New variants
By 15 February, a total of 413 cases caused by the recently described coronavirus variants have been identified in Finland. Of these, 395 are variants first detected in the UK and 18 are variants first detected in South Africa.
At the time of writing this article, the number of people in hospital care was 129 nationwide. Of them, 21 were admitted to intensive care units.
The country's incidence of new cases has remained more or less stable. According to THL, at the time of writing this article it was 90.5 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14-day period for the whole country.
Regional differences
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 181.9 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The incidence of new cases in Southwest Finland (Turku and surroundings) was 94.8 per 100,000.
In the Lapland hospital district, the incidence is 30,7 cases per 100,000 residents.
Currently, the lowest incidence in Finland is in the North Karelia hospital district, whose main city is Joensuu, where 14.7 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.
