A patient at the Rauhaniemi Hospital in Tampere has died due to a coronavirus infection, while other patients and staff members have been diagnosed with the virus, the city confirmed on Wednesday.

"We share in the grief of relatives, and we will do our best to calm the coronavirus situation at Rauhaniemi Hospital," Director of Social and Health Services Taru Kuosmanen wrote in a press release.

Yle reported on Tuesday that staff at the Rauhaniemi Hospital, which mainly serves elderly patients, had been ordered back to work before their exposure-related quarantines were completed.

As of Wednesday afternoon, a total of 35 new coronavirus infections had been diagnosed at the hospital, 19 of which were patients and 16 personnel members. That figure is up from 23 on Tuesday, 9 infected patients and 14 infected members of staff.

News about the Rauhaniemi Hospital's practices on Tuesday followed a separate report the previous day that Covid-exposed staff at Tampere University Hospital (TAYS) had also been told to return to work before the completion of quarantine periods.

Finland's largest trade union for health and social care professionals, Tehy, has made a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman about TAYS' practice of ordering physicians and nurses to continue working despite being quarantined for coronavirus exposure incidents.

However, TAYS said their policy on "practical quarantine" was in line with guidance from the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and it is permissible if patient safety is compromised due to staff shortages. Practical quarantine means hospital workers cannot go shopping or use public transport, for example, but they can be permitted to return to work.

Infections rising steadily since early December

At the beginning of December, a total of seven patients and staff members at Rauhaniemi Hospital had been diagnosed with coronavirus infections, but by the following day that number had risen to 13.

The testing of all patients and staff on the ward was then carried out and each group has been tested twice so far.

Infected and exposed patients were treated separately from other patients, and a separate ward has been set up for those infected. No new patients have been admitted to the ward since the first infections were diagnosed.

Visits to the wards of Rauhaniemi Hospital are also prohibited, except for critically ill patients.