Next month, Koronavilkku users can get tested based on exposure notifications
An update will be published for the Koronavilkku app at the beginning of March, allowing users to get tested based on exposure notifications. Up until now, users who have received an exposure notification in Koronavilkku have only been encouraged to get tested if they are experiencing symptoms.
The change will take effect on 4 March when an updated version of the Koronavilkku app is released. In the new version of the app, users who have received an exposure notification are advised to contact health care for instructions on how to get tested and other relevant guidance. The app has contact information for each municipality.
The change is based on the testing strategy updated by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health on 11 February 2021. The new strategy instructs asymptomatic users to get tested as soon as possible after receiving an exposure notification in Koronavilkku. The aim of this policy change is to break transmission chains even more efficiently.
Koronavilkku does not store the user's name or contact details. The application does not provide the authorities information about the app's users or exposure reports that could be used to link exposed persons to transmission chains.
All users who receive exposure notifications will still be instructed to avoid contact and take care of good hygiene. As far as possible, all contact should be avoided for a period of two weeks. Even with a negative coronavirus test result, it is still recommended to continue avoiding contact, as an infection may not immediately come up in test results. If you start experiencing symptoms, you should get tested again.
An exposure notification from Koronavilkku alone will not be enough to justify a quarantine ordered by a communicable disease control physician. If it is suspected that a quarantine ordered by a communicable disease control physician is necessary, a separate assessment of the case will be made in health care.
Over 2.3 million people are currently using the Koronavilkku app. More than 11,000 infections have already been reported with the application, and over 22,000 symptom assessments have been done based on these notifications. The number of people who have subsequently been tested is not available due to data protection.
If health care or testing capacity starts to become overwhelmed, health care will prioritise testing symptomatic persons. Testing capacity in Finland is currently about 30,000 samples per day. The largest number of daily tests has been more than 26,000 samples per day.
Further information:
Taneli Puumalainen
Chief Physician
THL
[email protected]
