Pisarasi is a simple tool that uses location data to quickly identify chains of infection and people who have been exposed to the coronavirus. Based on the voluntary participation of its users, Pisarasi uses the data that many people already collect about themselves. Pisarasi offers everyone the opportunity to help stop COVID-19 in its tracks.
Tracing contacts is one of the most effective ways of stemming the spread of infection. Identifying the movements of patients and their contacts whom they might have infected is currently done by interviewing them, which takes a lot of time and effort. Healthcare professionals, who already have to cope with a shortage of resources, are responsible for tracing these contacts. It is easier to identify chains of infections when a patient’s contacts can be traced using the location data from smart devices that they are already using.
How does Pisarasi work?
Pisarasi.fi is an online service that lets you log where you have been during the incubation period. Two weeks is the length of time that WHO and the ECDC have estimated that COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus, is contagious. You can add more information and how many people you have been in contact with in your diary. We will not share your data with other users, unless you want us to.
Together with your loved ones and other people close to you, you can add each other as contacts in Pisarasi, which reduces the time necessary to trace your movements and identify whom you may have come in contact with. This helps you protect each other and lets you help us break the chains of infection. You can also share your data with healthcare professionals.
We currently provide support for Android users to share their location data in Pisarasi. Android is a common operating system that is used by many devices including Samsung, LG, and Motorola phones. Many of the services we use in our daily life, such as mobile devices, customer loyalty systems, bank and credit card payments, ticket validation on public transportation, as well as trips on city bikes and e-Scooters, automatically collect the location data of their users in addition to their original use. In the future, our service will allow users to choose if they would like to use these additional sources in their diaries to improve the accuracy of the information they contain.
Why should I use Pisarasi?
Tracing contacts is one of the most effective ways of stopping this epidemic in its tracks. One of the most serious challenges we currently face in stemming the spread of the coronavirus and increasing testing capacity is the lack of personnel to trace chains of infection, which has been reported by the media, including YLE on March 31, 2020 (in Finnish). This is the very issue that Pisarasi seeks to address.
We are not used to keeping track of where we have been and whom we have met. Compiling this data after the fact can be very demanding even when not sick. Our healthcare professionals, who are currently trying to save lives, are having to use their precious time to trace our movements and contacts. They are trying to identify the people we sat with on trains and busses, the people we were in meetings with, and which of these people might have been carriers, infecting the people around them. The purpose of Pisarasi is to make it easier and faster to trace contacts by partially automating the process.
Our FAQ can be found here.