I have already logged my symptoms at another service. Why should I also use Pisarasi?
Pisarasi is specifically made as a supporting service for healthcare professionals doing contact tracing and finding people exposed to the virus. By focusing on diagnosed COVID-19 infections and tracing their contacts, Pisarasi differs from other solutions being developed with focus on mapping symptoms. Reserarches can also use the collected information to learn more about the disease, like transmission methods.
I don’t have a smart phone. Can I still use the application?
Yes, you can.
If you do not have a device compatible with direct upload to Pisarasi, you can manually enter information in the application. These entries create a diary, which helps during the contact tracing interview, regardless of how the information was entered.
More devices and services from which information can be brought to Pisarasi are added when and where possible. In future we will have more data sources which collect your location information, like customer loyalty programs, so you can use them to create your diary entries if you so wish.
Do I dare to use the service? Will it show to my neighbours that I have gotten sick?
We will never reveal or show your private information. Pisarasi doesn’t share your data automatically with anyone or any service provider. If you got sick, you can easily offer healthcare professionals your diary; where you have been moving and who you might have infected during the last two weeks without going through extensive and labour-intensive interview.
Why is your solution beneficial?
Location data, be it automatically collected or written down while on-the-go, is extremely useful in tracing transmissions for diseases like coronavirus, which we know can spread between people in short encounters. Finding and remembering these short encounters isn’t necessarily possible any other way. remembering these afterwards may not be possible any other way.
I tried to download my data from Google, but I didn’t get any information. How do I use this?
Make sure the following are true:
- Are you logged in on your Google account, in the same browser as you are using Pisarasi?
- Make sure you have Googline Timeline enabled:https://www.google.com/maps/timeline
- Make sure you have your devices enabled under your Google account, on this page: https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/location, under “Devices on this account” and the checkbox selected..
Why Pisarasi does not automatically alert others about exposure?
Some of the applications developed around the globe share a lot of information about the time and location of suspected exposure. While this approach has been somewhat effective, there are major concers related to privacy and ethical questions which are hard to answer. Because of these, we have currently chosen to not include automated exposure notification in Pisarasi.
Our goal is to give everyone the means to finding out who they might have potentially infected and guiding you and them to verified information and care.
I suspect I might have corona, what should I do?
If you suspect you have coronavirus infection and reside in Finland, good place to start is Omaolo -survey (available in Finnish and Swedish). If you are elsewhere, please find out your national instructions and follow them. Do not call emergency service unless you have an acute, life-threatening situation, like severe difficulty breathing.
For more information about what to do in a suspected coronavirus infection in Finland, go to THL website.
Local hospital and healthcare districts may have their own, more specific instructions if you suspect you have been infected. For example, information for HUS-area (Uusimaa, Finland) can be found here:https://www.hus.fi/en/patients/Pages/What-to-do-if-you-suspect-having-contracted-the-coronavirus.aspx.
After this, fill out your Pisarasi diary so you are prepared in case healthcare confirms you have coronavirus. Working together with them, you will narrow down where you have been infected and who might have gotten the infection through you.
More information about the story of Pisarasi can be found here .