COVID-19 pandemic in Finland

COVID-19 pandemic in Finland
Confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	Finland
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China
Index case	Inari
Arrival date	23–28 January 2020 (5 years, 2 months, 1 week and 4 days ago, or up to 5 days earlier)
Confirmed cases	6,003
Recovered	>4,300 (as of May 12th, before that day was unknown at level at least 300)
Deaths	275

The first case of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Finland was confirmed on 29 January 2020, when a Chinese tourist visiting Ivalo from Wuhan tested positive for the virus.

Background

On 31 December 2019, the Health Commission of Wuhan, Hubei, China, informed the WHO about a large number of acute pneumonia cases with unknown origin in its province.^[1] On 9 January 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) reported the identification of the SARS-CoV-2 as the cause.^[2]

On 27 January, following the developments of COVID-19 outbreak in mainland China, Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs advised citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to Hubei province.^[3] The following day, Finnair announced it would be ending its five weekly routes to Nanjing and Beijing Daxing until the end of March.^[4]

Numbers

On 30 January, Finland's health officials said that up to 24 Finnish people may have the virus.^[5]

Response

On 16 March, the president declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19.^[6] 272 laboratory-confirmed cases caused by COVID-19 had been diagnosed in Finland by 16 March 2020 at 2 pm.^[7]

References

1. "Pneumonia of unknown cause – China".
2. "Covid-19 - Situazione nel mondo". salute.gov.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
3. "Finland issues China travel advisory over coronavirus concerns". Yle News. 27 January 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
4. "Finnair suspends five weekly routes to China due to coronavirus". Yle News. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
5. "Up to 24 people in Finland possibly exposed to coronavirus symptom-free". Yle News. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
6. "Finland closes schools, declares state of emergency over coronavirus". Yle Uutiset. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
7. "Uusimmat tiedot koronaviruksesta: Hallitus kertoo lisätoimista klo 16 jälkeen, Suomessa 272 varmennettua tartuntaa, sairastuneita todennäköisesti 20–30 kertaa enemmän". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). 17 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-16.