THL boss: More than half of Finnish cases related to returnees from St. Petersburg | Yle Uutiset

THL director Mika Salminen

Image: Pekka Tynell / Yle

The number of new cases of coronavirus infection related to visitors who returned to Finland from Russia last week without being tested at the border is rising loudly Mika salt mines, the director of the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

As of Sunday evening, there were an estimated 200 new cases related to the incident in Finland, a number that has doubled since last Thursday.

He found that more than half of the country’s new coronavirus cases were traced back to last week’s eastern border crossing.

Last Tuesday, around 800 people were allowed to enter Finland at the Vaalimaa border crossing without having to undergo a coronavirus test or health check. Authorities made an exception to the rule regarding the tests as traffic at the border crossing was badly congested when hundreds of football fans returned Monday night as they played Finland against Belgium at the European Championship finals in St. Petersburg.

Salminen said most of the new cases were discovered in the capital region.

“There are cases all over Finland, but around 80 to 90 percent of them are here in the Helsinki metropolitan area and most of them are in Helsinki,” he said.

200 cases in HUS related to football trip

On Monday, the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) announced that municipalities across the region have diagnosed a total of 202 coronavirus cases in people who returned from Russia last week. Almost 500 people affected by the cross-border visit have been quarantined.

“The situation is extremely worrying and requires accountability. If someone gets a negative result in tests in Russia or at the border, it does not necessarily mean that the person there is not infected,” said HUS chief medical officer Markku Mäkijärvi The district announced on Monday.

“There could be many more people exposed [to the virus], even thousands, “Mäkijärvi said, noting that the fact that the tourists came by bus made it particularly difficult to track down potentially exposed people.

The lists of passengers on board the buses are incomplete and some information about the travelers is missing, including names, addresses and phone numbers, he said.

The doctor said that anyone who has traveled to Russia should take a coronavirus test 72 hours since they crossed the border and whenever there are symptoms of Covid.

According to Russian news agency Tass, the number of active Covid-19 cases across Russia – nearly 700,000 – was the highest number recorded in the country since late February. Last day, the city of St. Petersburg recorded 1,335 new cases, while 21,650 new cases were confirmed across the country during that period.

The news agency reported on Monday that Russia’s relative daily increase in new coronavirus cases is 0.4 percent.

Delta factor

Salminen said it was unclear how big the role of the delta variant of the coronavirus was in the situation. Laboratory tests that confirm variants can take one to two weeks.

“[The Delta variant] is clearly on the rise in Russia so the possibility is pretty good, “he said.

He did not rule out the possibility of local lockdown measures in affected areas if the virus spreads.

“It all depends on stopping new cases at all so there aren’t any additional ones. That has a lot to do with personal responsibility. Each case carries the risk of further infections and then the epidemic worsening, ”he said.

“It is really important that people who have visited St. Petersburg do not go to work and get tested and wait for the results,” he said, emphasizing that people who cross the border on buses are at a particularly high risk to get yourself with the virus and infect others.

Salminen said he did not consider the current situation to be the beginning of a major crisis, but emphasized the importance of football tourists getting tested.

He said the spread of infections emanating from St. Petersburg visitors will be visible in Finnish coronavirus case statistics within a week or two.

Edited June 28 at 2:12 pm to add information including case numbers in the HUS area.

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