The City of Turku’s Health Care Division and Turku University Hospital (Tyks) announced on Monday that several passengers had tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving at the city over the weekend on a flight from the North Macedonian city of Skopje.
According to a report (in Finnish) in the Turun Sanomat newspaper, there were 157 passengers on an aircraft which landed at Turku airport on Saturday, and that all of the passengers agreed to be tested for Covid-19.
On Monday evening Turku's welfare department director Riitta Liuksa confirmed that 24 of the passengers on the flight from Skopje were found to have coronavirus infections.
Sources from the hospital confirmed to Yle that the number of confirmed Covid cases among the passengers was large.
The newspaper noted that Tyks had been prepared to provide information on the number of infections as early as Sunday, but the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health asked the hospital to delay the publication of the information until Monday.
A press release was expected from the ministry later on Monday.
Representatives of the hospital district and regional administration agency as well as others met on Monday to discuss the measures that may be taken in the Southwest Finland region as a result of the confirmed diagnoses.
Edited at 6:18 pm to add the confirmation from Tyks that the number of confirmed Covid cases among passengers was large.
Edited at 8:33 pm to add confirmation that 24 of the plane's 157 passengers tested positive for Covid-19.