An outbreak of coronavirus infection was recorded in Finland after football fans attended a match in St. Petersburg.
Several dozen Finnish football fans who returned from St. Petersburg, Russia, where they traveled for European Championships – UEFA Euro 2020, tested positive for the coronavirus.
As of Thursday morning, June 24, 80 cases of infection were detected in tourists who crossed the border with the Russian Federation this week.
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Authorities are now trying to reach an additional 800 travelers who have not yet passed COVID testing.
The local health body claims that they were unprepared for the long queues as they expected most of those who had attended the match to follow the UEFA guidelines, which state that proof of a negative COVID-19 test result might be required to enter the stadium.
Risto Pietikäinen, the Kymsote physician who supervised testing at the border, told Yle that football fans probably accounted for at least 65 of the 72 infections that were detected in the Kymenlaakso region over the past two days.
HUS has urged the remaining travellers who returned from Russia on Tuesday to get tested within 72 hours while avoiding social contact in the meantime. Authorities are particularly concerned about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant in Russia.
As reported the day before, the incidence of COVID-19 in the Russian Federation jumped by 30% in a week. Almost half of new cases of coronavirus occur in Moscow, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg.
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