The sharp increase in coronavirus cases that began in Finland in February is also reflected by an uptick in the number of infections diagnosed in children.
Data provided by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) shows that there has been a 250 percent increase in the number of infections among children under the age of 10 over the past four weeks compared to a period of four weeks in November last year.
All other age groups averaged an increase of about 80 percent when comparing the same two periods, while the rise in the number of coronavirus infections among the over-80 demographic has been relatively small.
It therefore seems clear that vaccines have had a protective effect on the elderly age group, combined with the fact that older people have also restricted their social contacts more than young people.
However, it remains unclear what is causing the higher infection rates among children, although one possibility is the spread of more highly-contagious variants of the virus.
"Before we got the UK variant, about half of the members of a family became infected. Now it seems that the majority of them are getting sick," HUS's chief physician of infectious diseases Asko Järvinen told Yle Svenska.
From the data provided by THL, it appears that a growing number of adults have become infected recently and then in turn infected their children living within the same household. Petter Brodin, an assistant professor of immunology, told Yle Svenska that he agrees with this assessment.
"The most common site of infection is the home. And the most common way is that parents infect their children and not the other way around," Brodin said.
Increase in infections began before ski holiday
The increase in new infections among children under 10 years of age continued during the recent mid-term ski holidays, but the upward trend began before the holiday period began.
Brodin added that children are still not considered to be a driving force in the spread of infections, nor do children spread the disease as easily as adults.
He also emphasised that young children are usually either asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms if they contract the virus.
"This has been the case throughout the pandemic, and it is still the case now," Brodin said, adding that this was supported by data provided by the UK-based peer-reviewed general medical journal The Lancet.
On average, children and adolescents under the age of 18 have not been found to have had more severe symptoms due to contracting the UK variant than during the first coronavirus wave last year, the journal reported.
More testing increases number of positive results
To date, the highest number of infections has been in the 20-29 demographic of young adults.
However, an increase in infections has also been observed among under 10-year-olds in other European countries, such as Sweden and the United Kingdom, among others.
"It must be taken into account that more children have been tested now than before," Brodin explained.
In recent weeks, Finnish health authorities and hospital districts have recommended that asymptomatic people take coronavirus tests as well, which may explain the increased number of infections among children.