https://yle.fi/news/3-12668492Finland's Covid death toll could be exaggerated by 40%, THL says
Very few patients under 60 have died solely from the virus since last spring, a top specialist at the health agency says.
Covid-19 has not been the actual cause of death in up to 40 percent of fatalities attributed to the illness in Finland, according to Sirkka Goebeler, a chief specialist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). As a result, they do not end up in Statistics Finland's official data as coronavirus deaths.
Goebeler's unit examines all Finnish death certificates before they are forwarded to the state statistics bureau. The unit focuses on coronavirus-related death certificates where the attending physician has listed Covid as either the primary or a contributing cause of death.
The THL tally of Covid-related deaths stood at 6,407 on Tuesday – but that figure includes all deaths that have occurred within 30 days of a positive coronavirus test.
According to Goebeler, in nearly 4,000 of these cases, Covid is listed as the primary or immediate cause of death. In almost 1,600 cases, coronavirus is listed as a contributing factor.
In approximately 900 cases initially recorded as Covid-related deaths, the actual death certificates do not contain any indication of coronavirus infection at all.