Users of Koronavilkku, the Finnish app for tracking coronavirus infections, submitted 600 reports on Covid-19 cases in the application in September, according to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
This means that approximately one in three people who contracted the virus in September reported it through Koronavilkku.
The user reports the infection by entering a single-use unlock code in the application. After entering the code, the application then passes this information on to those who may have been exposed to the infection.
About a thousand people have done a symptom assessment in the Omaolo service after a notification from Koronavilkku. In addition to Omaolo, reports on exposure have encouraged people to get in contact with occupational health care.
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare doesn’t have information on the number of calls. The total number of exposure reports is also unclear.
Over 2.2 million downloads
Koronavilkku has now been downloaded more than 2.2 million times. In Europe, the only country where Koronavilkku has surpassed Finland in the number of downloads is Ireland, THL says.
"We want to thank every user of Koronavilkku for your participation in the fight against the epidemic. Especially as the number of infections increases, breaking infection chains becomes more efficient if people can get a notification of potential exposure and take precautions according to the instructions given in the application,” says Mika Salminen, Director at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
App Issues
New versions of Koronavilkku have been published. The update solves some of the most common issues that may have affected the application.
The technology company Solita is currently working to fix the issue related to situations in which exposure has lasted several hours. These might include exposure at home where one family member has been diagnosed. Koronavilkku has not sent exposure notifications about these cases to other family members.
"The flaw is in the interface of the operating system, and we are fixing it. The issue applies to long, continuous cases of exposure. It does not affect monitoring occasional encounters,” says Solita's technology specialist Sami Köykkä.
