Finland reports 7 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours

Seven more deaths associated with the Covid-19 disease occurred in Finland in the past 24 hours, the Finnish health authorities reported on Tuesday 2 February.

According to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), these fatalities brought the total death toll in Finland to 684 since the global pandemic started.

Four of these new deaths occurred in the Helsinki-Uusimaa area, where the majority of deaths (464) have been recorded since the pandemic began.

THL also reported 302 new infections on Tuesday. So far, the total number of diagnosed cases in the Nordic country amounts to 45,484, according to THL's tally.

New variants

By 2 February, 116 cases caused by the recently described coronavirus variants have been identified in Finland. Of these, 105 are variants first detected in the UK and 11 are variants first detected in South Africa.

At the time of writing this article, the number of people in hospital care was 141. Of them, 17 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 88.2 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 148.9 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The incidence of new cases in Southwest Finland (Turku and surroundings) increased to 118.5 per 100,000.

In the Lapland hospital district, the incidence is 33,3 cases per 100,000 residents.

The lowest incidence in Finland is in the South Karelia hospital district, whose main city is Lapeenranta, where 19.6 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.