Finland to lift roadblocks around Helsinki as govt ‘exhausts legal grounds’

Finland will lift roadblocks in the region around its capital, Helsinki, on Wednesday, PM Sanna Marin said. The move is one of the first steps towards easing coronavirus-related restrictions. Travel restrictions to and from Uusimaa, the capital region, to the rest of the country began on March 28, to prevent people from spreading the virus.

The government no longer has legal grounds to continue the lockdown, considering it an extreme measure to restrict people’s freedom of movement so strictly, Marin said.

“It is no longer an absolutely necessary restriction measure in the way required in the Emergency Powers Act,” Marin said. However, the government recommended people avoid all unnecessary travel.

Uusimaa has been the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Finland, but the spread of the disease has leveled out between regions in the past weeks. By Tuesday, Finland had 3,161 confirmed coronavirus cases and 64 deaths, with 232 patients hospitalized, 162 of them in the capital region, Reuters said.