COVID-19 pandemic in Finland
[7] On 31 December 2019, the Health Commission of Wuhan, Hubei, China, informed the WHO about a cluster of acute pneumonia cases with unknown origin in its province.
[9] 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.
[19] On 28 February, a Finnish woman who had travelled to Northern Italy tested positive by the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District and was advised to remain in home isolation.
[22][23] Later that day, 130 people, including students at Helsinki University's Viikki teacher training school, were placed in quarantine after having been in close contact with one of the diagnosed.
[25] On 6 March, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), announced that four new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the country, bringing the total number of infections to 19.
[31] Several regions in Finland start to limit laboratory testing of suspected coronavirus cases based on importance criteria.
[33] On 15 March, the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district (HUS) decided people returning to Finland from trips abroad will not necessarily be tested for novel coronavirus.
[citation needed] The first death, an elderly individual who lived in the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district, who had died a day earlier, was reported on 21 March.
[45] On 27 March, the Parliament voted unanimously to temporarily close the borders of the Uusimaa region, which has the most confirmed cases, in hopes of slowing down the epidemic in the rest of the country.
Travel to and from Uusimaa was prohibited without a valid reason and several hundred police officers were enforcing the restriction with the assistance of the Finnish Defence Forces.
[50] On 8 July, the government announced that border controls for travel between Finland and several EU and Schengen countries, with low infection rates, will be abolished.
[55] On 4 August, an app to trace people who have been in contact with infected individuals will be launched as a pilot version for City of Helsinki and Pirkanmaa Hospital District employees.
[56][57] On 13 August, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare issued a recommendation to use face masks in situations where it's not possible to practice social distancing.
In addition, people entering from countries with more cases per capita would be required to take a coronavirus test, according to Minister of Transport Timo Harakka (SDP).
[62] On 22 September THL announced they will issue regional face mask recommendations for public places in parts of Finland where the number of cases are on the rise.
[67] Vaccinations began the following day with front-line ICU healthcare workers of the Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) district becoming the first to receive the inoculation.
[68] On 28 December, Finland reported their first cases of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 from the United Kingdom, after a person who travelled from Western Europe tested positive for COVID-19.
[72] In July 2022, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare issued a statement[73] saying that Finland had saved up to 10,000 lives with vaccination, and was now transitioning into the endemic phase of COVID-19.
[41] On 20 March, the government announced a €15 billion support package to aid businesses and individuals suffering from the economic slowdown resulting from the virus.
[83][84] In conjunction with the government, many companies have ramped up in a short amount of time (roughly two months) the production of various equipment, such as respirators, for the healthcare system.
[86] Fiscal & Employment Response The government created budget proposals utilizing 3 percent of the GDP towards pension payments, social assistance programs, and grants to both dependent and self-employed workers.
[88] In addition to coming to the aid of businesses, Finland also provided support for their constituents employment protection by offering immediate unemployment assistance in March 2020 to those who faced lay-offs and self-employed individuals.
[94] The National Emergency Supply Agency of Finland or NESA (Huoltovarmuuskeskus or HVK) attempted hastened purchase of masks near the end of March.
[96] Then in charge of the primary production department, Jyrki Hakola told Deloitte that businessman Onni Sarmaste approached him as a representative of Tiina Jylhä [fi]'s Estonian cosmetic surgery company The Look Medical Care OÜ[102] offering the sale of protective equipment.
Hakola then received two pro forma bills for approximately five million euros each from both Jylhä's The Look Medical Care and Sarmaste's LDN Legal Partners.
The bill was fact-verified by Hakola and confirmed by then administrative director Asko Harjula and chief executive officer Tomi Lounema.
The delivery of the equipment had been agreed in the fashion that LDN Legal Partners would deliver them to Guangzhou Airport, with NESA then handling the flight to take them over to Finland themselves.
[109][110] On 10 April, prime minister Sanna Marin said in an Ilta-Sanomat interview that Tomi Lounema no longer had her support as the chief executive officer of NESA.
[96] In mid-April a report from consulting company KPMG found that NESA didn't have readiness for exceptional, rapid global acquirement of technical tools, resources and procedures.
[95] Hakola told Deloitte that even on 22 April he had received a call from The Look Medical Center complaining of the money still being frozen in the Estonian bank account.
