Blame game over new COVID-19 outbreak intensifies in Finland – EURACTIV.com

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The Finns expressed outrage over the lack of testing procedures for a group of 800 Finnish football fans who traveled to St Petersburg to watch a EURO 2020 game against Russia, where the highly contagious variant of the Delta coronavirus is now dominant.

The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare on Tuesday reported around 300 new cases among those who visited Russia, most of them carrying the Delta variant.

Although tracking has proven difficult due to missing phone numbers and addresses from passenger lists, authorities have ordered 800 people to remain in quarantine.

As fears of a fourth wave intensify, the Helsinki metropolitan area has postponed easing restrictions and some at-risk groups may be ordered to receive a third vaccine.

Some are now wondering why authorities have not allowed a safer rail connection to St. Petersburg and allowed fans to crowd the buses. Others wondered why insufficient testing was done at the borders, why fans came back untested and even why fans could travel in the first place.

I have not received any real death threats, but many wish me a slow and painful death, Finnish teams ‘supporters’ club chief Marko Karvinen told YLE, adding that his email and his phone full of angry messages.

(Pekka Vnttinen | EURACTIV.com)

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