I’m spending most of the summer in Hanko, the southernmost city of Finland, but every now and then I drive to Helsinki to meet friends and run some errands. The capital city is close enough (125km) so that one can easily drive there and come back during the same day.
Today when I was walking around in downtown Helsinki, looking at people and the summer scenery, I was struck with one very clear observation. There was no sign coronavirus or COVID-19 in Helsinki. People in bars, cafes, and shops – everywhere – behaved exactly like they would have behaved 365 days ago. No masks, no safety distances, no hand sanitizing, lots of hugging and kissing, and … just normal non-pandemic-like behavior.
What should one think of this behavior? Is it optimistic and healthy or simply irresponsible and dangerous? Well, let’s look at the latest numbers from Finland, which of course is a small population of just 5.5M. Since the beginning of the pandemic we’ve had 7,241 confirmed coronavirus cases and 328 deaths. During the previous 7 days we had only 69 confirmed new cases and there are currently 24 persons hospitalized due to the virus, but zero persons are in intensive care units (ICUs).
In other words, the numbers have been steadily improving and the fact that nobody is in ICU has been highlighted by several domestic media outlets. However, at the same time we hear that in many places around the world there’s been a surge in coronavirus cases. For example, just moments ago I read that in Florida (population 21.5M) coronavirus cases show no signs of slowing down and a new daily record was set today, with 10,109 cases, surpassing last Saturday's record of 9,585 cases. That brings Florida's total confirmed coronavirus cases to nearly 170,000 and a death toll of 3,617.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once more, I’m no expert on this topic and I won’t pretend to know more about pandemic outbreaks than anybody else. What I will say, however, is that people in Helsinki should probably not be so careless, considering how the virus is behaving in many other places, like for example in Florida.
Keeping a bit of distance and avoiding touching – basically just adhering to the simple rules we all got used to between March and June – is still a small sacrifice in my opinion. Until we know more, we should probably make that sacrifice for just a little while longer. It might have a significant impact on how the virus behaves in Finland during the coming months.
But as the old saying goes, Finns turn into different people in the summertime when the vacation season kicks off. Suddenly this law-abiding rational people turn into a bunch of hippies that couldn’t care less about anything but sauna and sunshine.
Let’s hope we get lucky and don’t end up with a bad situation in the autumn. But to be honest, I don’t feel too comfortable with the way most of us in Finland are behaving right now – and I definitely don’t believe in luck in these kinds of situations.