The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL has issued new recommendations on wearing face masks, as the coronavirus situation continues to deteriorate.
Overnight there were 91 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed around the country, with the biggest rises in Helsinki (16), Vantaa (9), Jyväskylä (7) and Espoo (7). Although those numbers might seem modest, THL says there’s a growing proportion of positive tests being returned, and they’re having more difficulty tracing the sources of infections. Coronavirus cases are also being detected in more hospital districts than before.
Finland now has 14.4 positive Covid-19 tests per 100,000 population in the last two weeks, and in the two weeks before that Finland was at 7 cases per 100,000 people. Finnish authorities limit travel from countries with more than 25 cases per 100,000 population in the previous fortnight; and Sweden, Estonia, Norway and Germany are going back on the list of restricted countries from next Monday because of rising cases there too.
At a Thursday morning press conference public health experts outlined their latest face masks guidelines.
In an ‘accelerated phase’ of the virus’ progression, with incidents of Covid-19 ranging between 10-25 cases per 100,000 population, the use of face masks is recommended not only on public transport but also in indoor public spaces, and at public events where close contact cannot be avoided.
During this phase of the epidemic authorities are still able to trace infection chains, and hospital care for patients can be provided without any special measures being implemented.
Officials say that if the virus continues to spread, with 18-50 cases per 100,000 population in the previous two weeks, then stricter instructions for using protective equipment will have to be introduced. During such a situation daily cases would be growing more than 10% while less than half of infection chains could be traced, and the need for hospital treatment and intensive care beds would become more acute.
