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Press release by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Assessment of the coronavirus situation published

Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
Publication date 15.5.2020 15.52 | Published in English on 18.5.2020 at 13.00
Press release

The situational picture and modelling group set up by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health monitors the effectiveness of the hybrid strategy for the coronavirus epidemic by means of epidemiological, medical and functional indicators.

The group has published its first weekly report. 

According to the situation assessment, the coronavirus epidemic in Finland has slowed significantly compared to the situation at the beginning of April. The average number of cases reported to the communicable diseases register has been decreasing for more than a month. The estimated basic reproduction number of the coronavirus is between 0.60 and 0.85. This means that the epidemic is not currently growing at the national level.

Indicators help to detect changes early on

The effectiveness of the hybrid strategy is monitored closely. The aim is to detect and respond to changes in the epidemic in a timely manner by means of monitoring indicators. 

Epidemiological indicators include the weekly average of the incidence of new cases (cases per population of 100,000), the estimated number of recovered patients and the basic reproduction number. Medical indicators include the number of patients in hospital and intensive care, the predicted number of new periods in hospital or intensive care, and mortality and changes in the mortality rate.

There are two functional indicators — the number of tests per population of 100,000 and the number of people with a positive test result of those suspected to carry the virus and tested (%).

Links

Inquiries:

Mika Salminen, Director, [email protected] and Taneli Puumalainen, Chief Physician, [email protected] (epidemic situation) 
Kari Auranen, Professor, [email protected] (projection models)
Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki, Strategic Director, [email protected] (situational picture and modelling group)