Koronavilkku application has been shut down – thanks to all users of the application!
The Koronavilkku application, which was used for breaking COVID-19 infection chains, has been shut down on 1 June 2022. From this day onwards, Koronavilkku no longer warns of potential exposure or monitors contact data. In other words, it cannot be used to report an infection. The application has been permanently shut down, and its users may delete it from their phones.
The application is shut down because the use of Koronavilkku is no longer justified in the current epidemic situation. Large-scale testing has been abandoned in many areas, and testing is only targeted at certain groups, such as health care professionals and at-risk groups. Giving up official testing has also meant that the key codes needed to report an infection with the application have no longer been given in large amounts.
2.5 million Koronavilkku users participated in slowing down the COVID-19 epidemic
Koronavilkku was introduced in Finland on 31st August 2020. The app achieved over 1 million downloads within 24 hours of its release. At its best, Koronavilkku had 2.5 million users. Koronavilkku was one of the world's most popular COVID-19 applications in proportion to the population of the country.
64,000 users reported their infection with the application. According to a survey conducted by Taloustutkimus, 23% of Koronavilkku users reported that they had been notified of potential exposure. 4,061 people responded to the survey.
In addition to application development, the development, deployment and maintenance of Koronavilkku included legislative work, changes in healthcare operations, ensuring data security and data protection and extensive communications to citizens. This was a nationally significant effort in Finland, of which a lot was learned. The lessons learned can be used in the future if there is a need for similar applications. Studies on the effectiveness of Koronavilkku and similar applications are conducted in Finland and the EU.
Koronavilkku's budget was €6 million, of which €5.1 million was used. The EU provided the application with around €150,000 of funding.
The significance of Koronavilkku was in the people who used it and in the health care professionals who were responsible for giving key codes to infected Koronavilkku users. THL would like to thank all users of the application and health care professionals for participating in the joint effort!
Further information:
Aleksi Yrttiaho
Director of Technology and Risk Management
THL
[email protected]
