Covid hotspot
Finlandâs traffic light system has tightened rules for some travellers arriving in the country, but the strict criteria have thrown up an oddity: bits of the country that have so much Covid that travellers would face restrictions if they were a separate country.
The rule is that places with more than 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the preceding two weeks should isolate for a fortnight on arrival in Finland.
That level puts Central Finland in the âredâ zone, with 41.9 cases per 100,000 residents in the last two weeks.
Thatâs higher than Estonia with 30.87 cases, and Sweden with 26.09. Quarantine is not on the agenda for those leaving Jyväskylä however, and Iltalehti reports that the situation is not so critical: the sources of nearly all the recent cases have been traced.
âKN95s are not useless,â Schabacker said. âWe still believe theyâre better than standard surgical masks, so thereâs no need to throw them out. Just donât use them in high-risk areas.â
That isnât surprising. The N95 part is supposed to be a grade of filtration. That has nothing to do with the fit of the mask, how you wear it, the materials, etc. Some are rigid, and donât shape to the contours of the face if it doesnât fit you well. Some are floppier cloth and just sort of hang and donât form at all. Some SHOULD be right in terms of filtration but the fibers spread under pressure and with use, etc.
People dealing with patients are actually fitted for their masks. Just grabbing one off a shelf isnât going to give you the full benefits of filtration without some luck. Just remember the more you are breathing around them instead of through them, the worse they are actually filtering. If they feel like normal breathing, you probably arenât getting filtered much.
Regardless, masks are good things now, and no one should be without one in public.
âFaith, if he be not rotten before he die â as we have many pocky corses nowadays that will scarce hold the laying in â he will last you some eight year or nine year.â
âGravedigger, Hamlet Act 5 Scene 1
With an administration pretty much made up of pocky corses, you have a point.