HELSINKI, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Finland has exceeded 2,000, said Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) on Monday.
As of Monday afternoon, Finland has confirmed 249 new cases, pushing the total to 2,167, with 27 deaths and 81 in intensive care.
THL said that 1,362 of the cases were diagnosed in the Helsinki-Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS), which covers 24 municipalities in southern Finland, including the capital area.
To prevent the spread of coronavirus to other parts of the country, the Finnish government has earlier blocked traveling in and out of the Uusimaa region.
Elevated numbers of new infections may be due to increased testing capacity, THL explained, saying that the number of testing had doubled in a few days last week.
So far, health authorities in Finland have performed 32,800 tests for the virus. The daily test capacity, now standing at about 2,500 samples, will increase to 4,000 in the coming weeks.
According to Finnish national broadcaster Yle, the epidemic has spread to nursing homes with dozens of infections. A total of six older people have died in the past few days.
In a press release issued on Monday, THL announced that it is beginning a study on factors that may impact the severity of the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Finland's University of Tampere has started to develop its coronavirus vaccine, which aims to treat the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak.
