EPIDEMIC

Finland reports 8 deaths, 1,037 new coronavirus infections

Gerry Hughes, 81, receives the first of two injections of the Pfizer vaccine at Feldon Lane Surgery (England). Photo: Jacob King/dpa.
The lowest incidence is in the Kainuu region, which had only 9.7 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 2-week period.

On Monday 14 December, the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) reported 1,037 new coronavirus infections diagnosed in the past 72 hours, bringing up to 31,110 the total number of cases found in Finland since the pandemic started.

Specifically, Finnish authorities informed of 377 new infections on Saturday, 360 were found on Sunday and 300 on Monday.

The Finnish health agency also reported 8 more deaths associated with the disease occurred since last Friday. 

So far, 461 people have died from the Covid-19 disease in Finland. Most of those fatalities (340) happened in the capital region, which is the worst hit area by the pandemic.

On Monday, the total number of people hospitalized due to complications linked to the Covid-19 disease increased to 276, which is 36 more than three days before.

The number of patients admitted to intensive care units increased also by 2, to 28.

Source: THL.

Incidence of new cases

The country's incidence of new cases continued to rise. According to THL, on Monday it was 106.2 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks for the whole country. However, the situation is very different depending on the region.

In the Helsinki-Uusimaa area, the most populated part of the country, the incidence for the preceding 14 days was 185.2 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to THL's figures. In contrast, in the Lapland region the incidence is much lower, 29 cases per 100,000 residents.

Currently, the lowest incidence in Finland is in the Kainuu region, whose main city is Kajaani, where only 9.7 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants have been diagnosed in the past 2-week period.