Three more deaths associated with the Covid-19 disease occurred in Finland in the past 72 hours, the Finnish health authorities reported on Monday 22 March.
According to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), these fatalities brought the total death toll in Finland to 808 since the global pandemic started.
Most of the deaths (525) have been reported in the capital region, the epicenter of the epidemic and the worst hit area.
THL also reported 1,806 new infections detected in the past 72 hours. Specifically, 856 new cases were diagnosed on Saturday 20 March, 520 on Sunday 21 March and 430 on Monday 22 March.
So far, the total number of cases diagnosed in the Nordic country amounts to 72,073, according to THL's tally.
New variants
By Monday 22 March, a total of 1,963 cases caused by the recently described coronavirus variants have been identified in Finland. Of these, 1,823 are variants first detected in the UK, 139 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 306 nationwide. Of them, 55 were admitted to intensive care wards.
The country's incidence of new cases increased during the past week. According to THL, at the time of writing this article it was 169.8 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.
Currently, the highest incidence in Finland is in the Helsinki-Uusimaa hospital district (the capital area), where 342.9 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.
The incidence clearly decreased in the Åland archipelago compared to one week ago. At the time of writing this article it was 92.8 per 100,000 residents, significantly less than a week ago, when it was 278.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The incidence of new cases in Southwest Finland (Turku and surroundings) also increased to 260 new cases per 100,000.
In the Lapland hospital district, the incidence of new cases was 28.2 per 100,000 residents.
