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Social distancing comes naturally in this country

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Anne Kauranen, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/reuters/11/16/coronavirus-finland.jpg"/><figcaption>People wear face masks at the Hakaniemi Sunday market, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Helsinki, Finland November 1, 2020. <em>Lehtikuva/Markku Ulander via Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>HELSINKI - While many countries struggle with a second wave of the coronavirus, Finland has halted a rise in new infections at Europe&#x27;s lowest level, helped by the fact that for Finns social distancing comes naturally.</p><p>While a remote Nordic location and one of Europe&#x27;s lowest population densities play in its favor in the fight against COVID-19, it helps that many Finns like personal space and solitude.</p><p>&quot;Maybe the Finnish personal comfort zone is a bit wider than in some other European countries. We&#x27;d like to keep people a meter or more away or we start feeling uncomfortable,&quot; said Mika Salminen, director at Finland&#x27;s public health authority THL.</p><p>On Sunday, Finland&#x27;s 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants stood at 54.2. The European average is around 576 and worst-hit Luxembourg 1302.8 cases, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control data showed.</p><p>In a Eurobarometer poll, 73% of Finnish respondents said the first wave&#x27;s confinement measures had been very or fairly easy to cope with, including 23% considering them &quot;even an improvement&quot; to their daily life.</p><p>Many Finns have enjoyed spending more time in nature or having saunas at their lakeside summer cottages.</p><p>&quot;We like to be in solitude wandering the forests and swimming in the lakes, so many Finns have actually enjoyed that they have been able to move away from the cities,&quot; Kristian Wahlbeck, director of the Finnish Association for Mental Health (MIELI), said.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TN2bX_woNoM?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>In April, the Finnish government&#x27;s initial efforts to contain the virus were backed by Europe&#x27;s highest rate of remote working, with nearly 60% of Finnish employees teleworking, a Eurofound study showed.</p><p>Around 2.5 million of 5.5 million Finns have voluntarily downloaded the government&#x27;s contact tracing app, a rate that Salminen&#x27;s colleagues at public health authorities in other European countries can only dream of.</p><p>&quot;It is actually a key factor in our strategy which is based on very low threshold to testing, contact tracing ... and quarantine,&quot; Salminen said.</p><p>After the first wave, daily COVID-19 cases fell close to zero in July but the government kept some of Europe&#x27;s strictest travel restrictions in place, allowing Finland to enter the second wave from a very low base level of infections.</p><p>&quot;In a bus we sit on a free double seat and that&#x27;s like natural social distancing for us and it&#x27;s, I think, how we are brought up,&quot; said Juha, a teacher in the capital region.</p>

<p>While many countries struggle with a second wave of the coronavirus, Finland has halted a rise in new infections at Europe's lowest level, helped by the fact that for Finns social distancing comes naturally.<br /> </p>

While many countries struggle with a second wave of the coronavirus, Finland has halted a rise in new infections at Europe's lowest level, helped by the fact that for Finns social distancing comes naturally.

Social distancing comes naturally in this country

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Social distancing comes naturally in this country

Anne Kauranen,

Reuters

Published Nov 16, 2020 10:18 PM PHT

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