Last week, 2,440 coronary cases were diagnosed in Harju County and 1,889 (79 percent) were recorded in Tallinn. As 4,289 new cases of coronavirus in total were diagnosed across the country last week, this means 57 percent were reported in Harju County.

629 people were diagnosed in the capital's biggest district Lasnamäe, which now has a 14-day infection rate of 1,052 per 100,000 inhabitants. Lasnamäe has approximately a third of all infected people in Tallinn.

261 people recorded having coronavirus in Haabersti last week, and the district now has a 14-day infection rate of 1,020 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In Harju County, Kose Parish registered 51 new cases, which due to its small population, gives it an infection rate of 1,045 per 100,000. Excluding Tallinn, Kose has one-tenth of the infections in the rest of Harju County.

Elsewhere in the country, Lääne-Harju municipality has a 14-day infection rate of 916 per 100,000, Raasiku municipality is on 871 per 100,000 and Maardu's rate is 803.

North Tallinn has a rate of 777 per 100,000, Mustamäe 757 and town of Keila 707.

The districts with the lowest ratings in Tallinn are Nõmme (543 per 100,000 and 114 new cases) and Pirita (593 per 100,000 and 57 new cases). In Harju County, the infection rate is the lowest in Kuusalu municipality (296; 13 cases per week).

Estonia's 14-day average is currently 601 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Health Board told ERR it has no complaints about how the virus is being controlled in Tallinn and believes communication is good and regular.

"There are no complaints about Tallinn, they have set a good example for other local governments with the mask campaign," Communication Adviser of the Health Board Eike Kingsepp said.

She said the reasons for the high infection rates in Tallinn, Maardu and Ida-Viru County are socio-economic and cannot be solved by local governments but need attention on a national level. It is expected that when sick days start to be reimbursed from day two this will have an effect.

Ester Öpik, who previously headed the Northern Regional Department of the Health Board and now coordinates the fight against coronavirus in Tallinn, told ERR the city works closely with communities across the city.

She said both Estonian- and Russian-speaking communities are being taken into account in Tallinn's communication strategy and a lot of basic communication is built on outreach through schools.

"We have communicated a lot with school leaders, because the school is a good and reliable channel for the community, especially in the context of the crisis - a child receives information at school, they are often asked at home about what they think or found out about at school. We engage in targeted communication through young people - it is very important to reach them," said Öpik.

Infection rates in seven Tallinn districts higher than national average

On Tuesday, ERR published the 14-day infection rates for all eight districts of the capital, seven of which are higher than the national average of 590.68 per 100,000 inhabitants.

• Lasnamäe: 1,050.34
• Haabersti: 991.32
• Põhja-Tallinn: 760.08
• Mustamäe: 746.48
• Kristiine: 625.71
• Pirita 603.68
• Nõmme 548.36

Tallinn's average is 809.15 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Editor's note: This article was updated to add infection rates for each district of Tallinn.

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