Finland’s exposure notification app has limited use, experts claim

One-third of the population of Finland (2 million people) downloaded the "Korinavilkku" exposure notification app in the first week when it was launched at the end of August 2020. However, experts consulted by Iltalethi claim that the app has, so far, produced few benefits.

Some 12,000 people have used the app to share a positive test result, and "the tracing app did facilitate around 22,000 coronavirus symptom assessments at the online health service Omaolo," writes Yle. However, several doctors involved in tracking the spread of the disease say that 2,3 million active users are not enough to make the app effective. "The paper reported that the number of others possibly exposed by that group remains unknown," writes Yle.

This may relate to the app's privacy-oriented design (decentralized proximity tracing): "Due to built-in limitations of the application, the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) does not receive information on how many people who were notified of a possible coronavirus exposure actually became infected."