Government: "Downward trend of new Covid infections has stalled"

The coronavirus epidemic has remained stable in Finland, though the government admits that the downward trend of new infections "has stalled." During the last period assessed (13–19 July), a total of 40 new cases were reported to the communicable diseases register.

On Thursday 23 July, THL reported 10 more infections and zero deaths. So far, a total of 7,372 cases have been detected in Finland. There have been 328 deaths associated to the disease since the pandemic started.

"The number of cases is at the same level as in the previous two weeks," the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health highlighted on Thursday in a press release.

According to the health authorities, some of the new cases are related to well-known infection chains and clusters of cases that are being monitored. "The infection chains of all new cases are carefully tracked in order to prevent new infections as effectively as possible," the ministry said.

Reproduction number

Currently, the estimated basic reproduction number is 0.55–0.95, with a 90% probability.  This value indicates how much the virus is spreading, a reproduction rate higher than 1 means that each person with the disease infects an average of more than one person.

"This means that although the downward trend of new coronavirus infections has stalled, the situation is stable at national level," the ministry remarked.

Last week, the number of people tested for coronavirus was slightly higher than in the previous two weeks. The percentage of positive COVID-19 cases of all samples taken has remained low. 

It is estimated that 6,920 people, (over 90% of all confirmed cases), have recovered from the disease. As of 22 July 2020, only 4 patients were receiving hospital care due to the COVID-19 disease. None of them were in intensive care.