OREANDA-NEWS. Due to the worsening situation with coronavirus, the Finnish government will introduce additional restrictions to the existing ones from 8 to 28 March. As part of the restrictions, high school students will be transferred to distance learning. In addition, group classes for persons over 12 years old will be suspended. This was announced on Thursday at a press conference by the head of the Cabinet of Ministers Sanna Marin.

In addition, the government will submit a proposal to parliament to close restaurants for a specified period. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat calls the main purpose of the emergency situation to restrict the work of restaurants.

Marin noted that "the government, together with the president, is ready to declare a state of emergency in the country."

The Cabinet of Ministers hopes to use these restrictive measures to reduce the number of infections in order to reduce the burden on medical facilities and prevent overloading the healthcare system.

According to the THL National Institute for Health and Social Welfare, the current high increase in the number of people infected with coronavirus is due to the higher pathogenicity of new strains of infection.

In total, 55,122 cases of COVID have been registered in Finland, 302,342 people or 5.5% of the country's population have been vaccinated.