“한국이 코로나 검진해달라” 핀란드 1만8천개 의심 검체 보낸다

Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, hospitals in Finland have called for South Korea's for help.
With Finnish hospitals struggling to test all the samples they have collected of potential COVID-19 patients, the country will send 18-thousand samples to be tested in Korean laboratories.
Our Choi Jeong-yoon reports.
South Korea's coronavirus testing methods have been receiving attention from all over the world.
With swift and accurate diagnostic capabilities, a group of large Finnish companies have asked South Korea to test samples the country has collected for suspected cases.
According to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, private healthcare provider Mehilainen is paying to send 18-thousand samples from Finland to a laboratory in South Korea...due to a limited supply of COVID-19 analysis available.
The first batch of tests will go on a Finnair flight on Wednesday afternoon local time, carrying some one-thousand-500 samples.
Then, the chartered flight will return to Finland with supplies of protective gear and sampling equipment.
This procedure is expected to run for two weeks.
Such measures come as the hospital aims to vastly increase the number of tests carried out on Finnish patients.
After failing to find domestic institutions as well as in Europe, the hospitals have called for South Korea's help.
So far, only 21-thousand tests have been done in Finland...but mostly on medical teams and patients who are severely ill.
Patients who have mild symptoms, and those who would not normally qualify for testing under Finnish guidelines, could get their tests done in South Korea.
At least 14-hundred people have tested positive for the virus so far, but health authorities presume the actual number of confirmed patients could be 30 times larger,… considering how many suspected cases have not yet been tested.
Choi Jeong-yoon, Arirang News.