(Bloomberg) -- The coronavirus pandemic is starting to burden Finland's hospitals as the weekly number of confirmed infections hit a record, the health ministry warned.
While more patients are forecast to need treatment in hospitals and intensive care units in the coming week, ICUs continue to have capacity, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said on Thursday.
The government is set to invoke emergency powers on Friday, which would allow non-urgent care to be delayed as the pandemic spreads. According to the current estimates, an infected person passes the virus on average to about 1.15 to 1.35 others, as the more infectious U.K. strain circulates.
Just under 60,000 people in Finland have tested positive for the coronavirus and 759 people have died of the illness since the initial outbreak. Finland is now the second-worst affected in the Nordic region in terms of 14-day incidence, after Sweden, according to WHO data.
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