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Sweden may have made international headlines for its handling of Covid-19, but its Nordic neighbor to the east may be just as interesting.
Finland has had 90% fewer coronavirus deaths per capita than Sweden and its economy also contracted less in the first half of 2020. Even now, while the rest of Europe worries about a large increase in cases, Finland has one of the lowest infection rates on the continent, although it has risen in the last two weeks.
Experts said that Finland’s approach, and the similar one by Denmark and Norway, of closing quickly but not fully to control the pandemic, and then reopening after a couple of months has been one of the most successful in Europe at this early stage. of coronavirus.
“The closure was never absolute and we also opened relatively quickly during the summer; this may explain the effect on the economy, which was less severe, “said Mika Salminen, director of health security at THL, the Finnish agency of health experts.
He added that while Sweden seemed to adopt a “more strictly utilitarian” approach with a different tolerance for risk, the Finnish constitution strongly emphasizes “the protection of life and health among the responsibilities of government.”
A great distinction between Finland and all other European countries is their focus on preparedness and how to act in national emergencies, born from their collective experience during the Winter War in 1939-40 against the Soviet Union. Its preparedness law explicitly mentions pandemics and was activated for the first time since World War II, while its emergency stocks of medical and protective equipment were the envy of the continent amid shortages elsewhere.
Anders Tegnell, a Swedish state epidemiologist who reviewed preparedness in Finland several years ago, said: “His level of preparedness is far beyond anything we would dream of in Sweden. But of course if you have a neighbor like Russia and you have fought wars with him forever … “
Salminen said the preparation had both a “practical and psychological” effect.
Pekka Nuorti, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Tampere, said he went further. “Finland has a long tradition of responding to crises and people tend to come together when there is a crisis. What was remarkable when the restrictions were implemented were the changes in the behavior of the population, ”he added, noting a three-quarters reduction in social contact between people.
He added: “A pandemic is really a mirror of the functioning and organization of a society as a whole.”
Emergency shutdown
The Finns are cautious about declaring their approach successful, given the potential for a second wave in the coming months. Its per capita cases are at their highest since mid-May and have tripled in the last two weeks, but they are still at 10 new infections per million people compared to more than 50 in the UK and Denmark.
Experts say Finland was helped by its position on the periphery of Europe. It was also affected later than some European countries, meaning that its lockdown in mid-March in retrospect came at the right time, helping to stop the spread of the virus.
But Johan Strang, associate professor of Nordic studies at the University of Helsinki, said the Finnish approach was still noteworthy with a clear communication from the center-left government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin and other authorities across the country. “They were calm, in the sense that they can implement quite drastic measures without anyone questioning them. Finland was better prepared for this than Sweden, ”he said.
One drastic measure was when the region, including the capital Helsinki, was closed, preventing people from entering or leaving its borders for several weeks. It also has the strictest criteria in Europe for visitors from abroad to avoid quarantine. But otherwise, the blockade of Finland, according to Norway and Denmark, was less severe than much of Europe, with shops and public transport open and no curfews.
Finland appears to have used that lock wisely, increasing its ability to test and trace contacts. Salminen noted a large increase in staff dealing with contact tracing, as well as an app that has been downloaded by 2.1 million people out of a population of 5.5 million.
“We hope that these measures, along with limited local and regional restrictions, as well as increased use of masks, will slow the second wave,” he added.
As in other parts of Europe, infections have increased more recently in younger people, which Professor Nuorti classified as good news, as they got seriously ill less often, but bad news, as they tend to have more social contacts than older people and Covid-19 seemed to find its way to vulnerable populations.
Still, he said the Finnish approach had worked so far, providing “evidence that the lockdown restrictions work.” But he added: “Of course, we cannot keep society closed forever. That is what we are balancing right now: how to make society work as much as possible while keeping the disease in check? “- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2020
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