Finland reports 1,479 infections, 7 deaths in the last 72 hours

Seven more deaths associated with the Covid-19 disease occurred in Finland in the past 72 hours, the Finnish health authorities reported on Monday 22 February.

According to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), these fatalities brought the total death toll in Finland to 733 since the global pandemic started.

Most of the deaths (488) have been recorded in the capital region, the epicenter of the epidemic and the worst hit area.

THL also reported 1,479 new infections detected in the past 72 hours. Specifically, 632 new cases were diagnosed on Saturday 20 February,  457 on Sunday 21 February and 390 on Monday 22 February.

So far, the total number of cases diagnosed in the Nordic country amounts to 54,132, according to THL's tally.

Source: THL.

New variants

By 22 February, a total of 556 cases caused by the recently described coronavirus variants have been identified in Finland. Of these, 530 are variants first detected in the UK, 25 are variants first detected in South Africa and 1 corresponds to the Brazilian variant..

At the time of writing this article, the number of people in hospital care was 170 nationwide. Of them, 30 were admitted to intensive care wards.

The country's incidence of new cases has increased slightly during the past week. According to THL, at the time of writing this article it was 104.2 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 207.4 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The incidence of new cases in Southwest Finland (Turku and surroundings) was 117.3 new cases per 100,000.

In the Lapland hospital district, the incidence of new cases also increased to 44.4 cases per 100,000 residents.

Currently, the lowest incidence in Finland is in the Kainuu hospital district, where 12.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.