Finland reports 438 new infections, 2 deaths in the last 24 hours

Two more deaths associated with the Covid-19 disease occurred in Finland in the past 24 hours, the Finnish health authorities reported on Tuesday 9 February.

According to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), these fatalities brought the total death toll in Finland to 703 since the global pandemic started.

Most of the deaths (473) have been recorded in the capital region, the epicenter of the epidemic and the worst hit area.

THL also reported 438 new infections detected in the past 24 hours. So far, the total number of diagnosed cases in the Nordic country amounts to 48,407, according to THL's tally.

Source: THL.

New variants

According to the health agency, by 5 February, a total of 224 cases caused by the recently described coronavirus variants have been identified in Finland. Of these, 207 are variants first detected in the UK and 17 are variants first detected in South Africa.

At the time of writing this article, the number of people in hospital care was 129. Of them, 15 were admitted to intensive care units.

The country's incidence of new cases has been increasing during the last two weeks. According to THL, at the time of writing this article it was 94.3 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 raised to 170.2 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The incidence of new cases in Southwest Finland (Turku and surroundings) was 110.2 per 100,000.

In the Lapland hospital district, the incidence is 29 cases per 100,000 residents.

Currently, the lowest incidence in Finland is in the North Karelia hospital district (Joensuu), where 15.3 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.