Health officials in central Finland's city of Jyväskylä confirmed on Tuesday that 19 new coronavirus infections were diagnosed in the past 24 hours and that nearly 400 people had received quarantine orders.
More than half of the infections detected in the city's health care services region over the past two weeks were uncovered over the past two days, but the situation is under control, according to Ilkka Käsmä, the city's head physician of infectious diseases.
"Unfortunately, three separate disease clusters spread at the same time, but are unrelated. This was a case of bad luck. It is mainly a question of workplace-related infections," Käsmä said.
Both Käsmä and Jyväskylä mayor Timo Koivisto characterised the situation as serious but manageable.
"There hasn't been such a cluster of infections within a few days, even in the spring. We prepared guidelines [on further action] if the situation worsens. If it does get worse, restrictions on gatherings for events and hobbies must be increased," Koivisto said.
The mayor noted that not enough people in the city were wearing face masks while travelling on public transportation.
Health officials have said that the recent elevated infection rates were due to the spread of coronavirus by asymptomatic carriers of the virus. The infected individuals were not aware that they were Covid-positive and spread it to others at their places of employment.
Mass exposure risk incidents at two other locations in the city were still under investigation by health officials on Tuesday.
Town on Russian border combats local cluster
Meanwhile, near the Russian border, health officials in Kuhmo, almost 400 km northeast of Jyväskylä, continue to deal with a local coronavirus outbreak.
On Tuesday the Kainuu Social and Health Care Joint Authority confirmed a new coronavirus case, following the detection of 16 Covid-19 cases as of Monday.
The chain of infection in that area was apparently caused after it was found that an individual who'd initially tested negative for the disease was actually Covid-positive.
The number of exposed people in this case was 150-200, according to health officials.
More than 400 people were tested in the Kainuu region on Monday, but many more still need to be tested, according to the region's pandemic chief, Olli-Pekka Koukkari.
"There are still hundreds of people queuing to be tested," he said, adding that all individuals who may have been exposed have been reached and tested. The tests of a few of the exposed individuals were still incomplete by Tuesday afternoon.