Finland Offers Sweden Help In Tackling Region's Worst COVID-19 Outbreak

HELSINKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2020) Finland is ready to help Sweden fight the coronavirus outbreak by taking part of pressure from the neighbor's health care system and cover treatment of non-COVID-19 patients, Finnish Minister for Nordic Cooperation Thomas Blomqvist said on Friday.

Sweden remains the region's worst coronavirus outbreak, with over 62,000 confirmed cases and 5,209 deaths, according to the latest situation report by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Finland is ready to help Sweden with medical care: hospitals in the north [where the bilateral border is] could treat non-coronary patients," Blomqvist said on Twitter.

Finnish Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo has also voiced Finland's readiness to help Sweden in her interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

According to Finnish media, the country could help the Nordic neighbor by admitting non-coronavirus patients to hospitals in Lapland so that Sweden's health care system could focus all efforts on COVID-19. The head of Swedish northernmost region of Norrbotten, Anna-Stina Nordmark Nilsson, has reportedly said that Sweden wanted to accept help, but there were no formal statements or requests at this point.

Finland itself has so far reported just over 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 327 deaths, and Norway has reported 8,777 cases and 249 deaths, according to the WHO situation report.