The rapid increase in coronavirus infections and the growing need for quarantine of health care personnel are putting significant pressure on the Finnish health care system. Asko Järvinen, Chief Physician of Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) and Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases.
Järvinen said in Yle’s Ykkösaamu breakfast program on Friday morning that there are a lot of staff absences in the HUS area in particular due to Covid infections and exposure.
"Every day we have to count the number of absentees and at the same time look at how many hospital places are available," Järvinen said. "The increase in infections is very rapid, which is a feature of the Omicron variant."
On Friday, the health authority THL registered 9,921 new laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which the Omicron variant is currently the most dominant variant in Finland.
However, Järvinen pointed out that the positive side is that the need for hospital and intensive care has not increased in proportion to the number of cases.
Despite this, the number of people in need of hospitalization has more than doubled in the last 10 days. In Finland, there were 235 people in hospital care on 28 December. On Friday morning, January 7, the number had risen to 508.
Of these, approximately 55 patients are currently in intensive care. This is a very small increase from 52 Covid patients in intensive care units a week earlier, on New Year’s Eve.
"The need for intensive care is significantly lower than in previous waves," Järvinen said.
The Omicron version may affect turnout in regional elections
The deteriorating coronavirus situation could jeopardize turnout in the upcoming provincial elections, which are scheduled for January 23, Järvinen told Ykkösaamul.
However, he added that voting at polling stations must be safe.
"If face masks and hand sanitizer are used there [at the polling stations], I don’t think the situation is more dangerous than in the grocery store," he said, adding that the more uncertain element is how many people can actually vote.
"A bigger problem is if a large part of the population is ill or quarantined on polling day," Järvinen said.
The quarantines also sparked debate in last year’s municipal elections. The Ministry of Justice acknowledged at the time that not everyone could vote if they had become infected with the virus or had been exposed to the virus, as there was no provision for voting in isolation.
The ministry was criticized for failing to secure the voting rights of voters infected or exposed by Covid.
Source: The Nordic Page