Markku Broas, Chief of Infectious Diseases of the Lapland Hospital District, stated According to YLE’s Ykkösaam on Monday, the coronavirus is not currently an epidemic in Finland. However, epidemic is not a straightforward concept, the definition of which is set in stone according to Broas.
“We’re talking about an epidemic as cases of the disease start to increase steadily and rise from week to week. Then there will be no infections in individual clusters, and we will not be able to determine a significant part of them, ”he explained.
Helsingin Sanomat pointed out yesterday that an average of 24 new infections have been reported in the country every day during the last two weeks. With the maximum daily number of coronavirus tests exceeding 14,000, the proportion of positive tests has remained clearly low. The number of deaths caused by the virus has declined by only two in the last two weeks.
THL revealed on Tuesday that 56 new laboratory-confirmed infections were reported to the Infectious Diseases Registry on Monday Tuesday. Only 10 people were hospitalized, including one in critical care, with symptoms caused by the virus yesterday.
Salminen reminded Helsingin Sanomat that on Tuesdays it is customary to be on the register when many infections detected over the weekend are entered in the register.
“We’re not nervous yet. These happened for several days, ”he said.
Accordingly, Broas stressed that the sudden increase in the daily number of coronavirus infections should not be interpreted as a sign of an upward trend.
“The situation is mostly calm,” he told YLE. “We have a couple of infection clusters that have changed the daily amount significantly. There are also activities in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The near future will tell us how the situation will develop. “
Although both medical experts estimated that the coronavirus is not currently an epidemic in the country, they stressed that the virus is still a threat. “We could talk about a peaceful phase in that sense. The threat has not gone anywhere, because there is still a lot of virus in the world,” Salminen reminded.
One of the recent infection clusters was detected in Kuhmo, Kainuu. More than 16 people under the age of 30 in the area have received a positive result and more than 150 have been exposed to the new coronavirus through contacts at home, at work and in leisure activities.
Last weekend, the city of 8,500 residents decided to shut down many of its facilities – including gyms, libraries, museums and youth clubs – to prevent the virus from spreading further.
“It is clear that new infections and thus new exposures will come this week. After that, we will see what effect the restrictions will have,” Tytti Määttä, Mayor of Kuhmo, commented To Helsingin Sanomat.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page