The health authorities know about several cases where a person has travelled on a cruise ship and afterwards been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection.

The rapid spreading of the virus and its serious risks especially for the elderly population, challenged the City of Helsinki to react quickly, partially using new methods.

The City of Helsinki’s plan to turn Senate Square into a giant open-air food court took an important step forward this week after the city selected 16 restaurants to do business in the iconic space. Municipal officials agreed on a garden theme, in addition to common operating principles for keeping customers safe.

At the request of the mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori, the Port of Helsinki has prepared scenario work on the impact of the location of the port’s operations on the port’s business operations and on the realisation of the City of Helsinki’s vision of becoming the best-functioning city in the world.

The World Economic Forum, Ministry of Transport and Communications and City of Helsinki launch collaboration that aims to accelerate digitalisation, data economy and automation. From the perspective of Finland and Helsinki, it is important to enhance national and international data cooperation and seek international impact for Finland's extensive data competence.

Helsinki and Hellon conducted a study to identify measures that e.g. give the customers peace of mind and a general sense of security in tourist services.

The competition entries of the second phase of the international Helsinki East Urban Centre ideas competition organised by the City of Helsinki have been completed. The entries are available for comments online until mid-August. The competition jury will take the comments into account in its decision, and the competition will close in the autumn. After the competition, development principles will be drawn up for Itäkeskus and its surroundings, in which the outcome of the competition will be taken into account.

City of Helsinki started on 20 April accepting applications for the operating support for sole entrepreneurs. The support is a lump-sum compensation of 2,000 euros for sole entrepreneurs to cover costs caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the business activities. Around 5,000 entrepreneurs have already received operating support from the City. This means that Helsinki has distributed around 10 million euros to sole entrepreneurs, to cover damages caused by the coronavirus pandemic.