the English relax between the quarterfinals and the semi-finals

Nearly 300 supporters returning to Finland after attending the Euro in St. Petersburg have tested positive for Covid-19, local health authorities announced on Monday.

The health authority in charge of the epidemic, THL, has renewed its call for screening all Finns who returned to the country after the defeat against Belgium last Monday and recommends that supporters quarantine themselves for at least 72 hours until negative return from a screening test.

The country’s authorities had already expressed their concern Thursday after the detection of nearly a hundred cases among supporters returning from Russia.

Local authorities near the border between Finland and Russia then identified 86 cases during tests carried out at customs posts.

Due to congestion and traffic jams caused on Tuesday by the return of some 3,000 supporters, Finnish customs officers had to let in nearly 800 people without testing them, especially in buses, according to local media.

Russia is facing an increase in coronavirus cases due to the more contagious Delta variant, a situation which particularly affects Saint Petersburg, host city of the Euro, where the incidence rate is currently twenty times higher than in Finland, according to THL.

On Monday, the mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori, also announced that hopes of seeing other restrictions lifted would be suspended, in part due to the peak in infections linked to the Euro.

« There are so many infections (…) the situation is clearly different from what it was a week ago, » said the councilor at a press conference.

On Monday, the Nordic country of 5.5 million people reported 95,168 coronavirus infections, including 1,184 in the past week – and nearly a thousand deaths.

(AFP)