Finland's overall total since the beginning of the pandemic now stands at 63,110.
The Finnish news agency STT reported Tuesday that the Prime Minister’s Office is drafting temporary restrictions on movement regions where the coronavirus situation is in the community transmission phase.
The restriction would mean that outdoor exercise could only be carried out alone or with members of the same household. Other measures could see residents in community transmission regions ordered to stay at home except for essential purposes only, such as work, school or a visit to a grocery store.
On Monday, Finland's Parliament approved a bill ordering bars and restaurants to close their doors for three weeks in an effort to tackle the worsening coronavirus situation in many areas of the country.
President Sauli Niinistö signed the bill into law later on Monday.
Finland begins a three-week period of partial shutdown on Monday, with restrictions depending on whether a region is in the baseline, accelerating or community transmission phase of the epidemic.
Russia has offered to supply Finland with the technology to produce its Sputnik V vaccine, Tass news agency reported, in what observers fear is a strategic manoeuvre with political and commercial motives.
Russia’s purpose with such offers is to sow confusion in the European Union, former Finnish ambassador to Moscow Hannu Himanen told Finnish broadcaster MTV3 on Saturday, adding that Finland is one of those EU countries where Russia wants to “test the waters.”
The issue was first raised in a phone conversation between Russian parliament speaker Valentina Matviyenko and former Finnish president Tarja Halonen, who now works for the WHO’s European COVID-19 group. Halonen reportedly contacted Matviyenko at the request of the WHO to discuss the process of approving Sputnik V for use in the EU. ■
The main thing making weather headlines Friday and into the weekend will be the widespread coverage of showers and thunderstorms across much of the central and eastern U.S., with a particular focus across southeast Texas, the Mid-South, and portions of Virginia.