Over the last six weeks, Finland has seen a downward trend of new Chinese coronavirus cases, but the number of deaths resulting from the virus has risen.
So far, there have been a total of nearly 38,000 coronavirus cases in the Scandinavian country, and according to Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Chief Physician Taneli Puumalainen case numbers are on a decline.
“The downward trend has been going on for six weeks, and we hope that this positive development will continue. There is uncertainty about the reporting of public holidays, i.e. we will see whether the situation stays as it is, or whether we will have a spike in disease in the same way that we have seen in many countries,” Puumalainen told broadcaster YLE.
However, deaths have increased, with six deaths reported between Tuesday and Thursday, with a daily average of five to six deaths per day from the disease. The increase has been blamed on a larger number of people over 80 contracting the virus.
The variant strain of coronavirus first identified in Britain was also detected in Finland at the end of last month. At least one person has been infected by another variant of the disease first identified in South Africa.
Along with other European countries, Finland banned flights to and from the United Kingdom after the discovery of the strain.
Finland’s coronavirus cases and deaths remain relatively low compared to its neighbour Sweden, which has seen nearly 470,000 patients and almost 9,000 deaths from the virus, according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics.
Like Sweden, Finland has seen migration-background individals disproportionally affected by the disease, with a quarter of Finland’s cases involving non-Finnish speakers.
Meanwhile, reports from Sweden have claimed that 46 per cent of those in intensive care units (ICU) have a migration backgrounds.