omaolo.fi Vaccinations

Fre­quent­ly Asked Questions

This page has been updat­ed on March 24th 2022 at 2.15 pm

I got a pos­i­tive result on a coro­n­avirus test, what do I do?

You have to stay at home in order to avoid spread­ing the infec­tion. You will typ­i­cal­ly start infect­ing oth­ers about two days before the first symp­toms appear, and the risk of infect­ing oth­ers that you are in con­tact with remains for about a week from the start of your symp­toms. You should inform your place of work or study as well as oth­er peo­ple you may have met dur­ing the time you have been infec­tious about the sit­u­a­tion, and tell them to stay at home if they start get­ting symptoms.

You can return to your nor­mal every­day rou­tine when you are symp­tom free and the iso­la­tion peri­od has end­ed. Asymp­to­matic means that the fever is gone and oth­er symp­toms are clear­ly eas­ing. If need­ed, apply for sick leave via your occu­pa­tion­al health ser­vices or your health center.

The dis­ease pic­ture for a COVID-19 infec­tion may vary from near­ly asymp­to­matic to seri­ous dis­ease. The symp­toms may also vary as the dis­ease pro­gress­es. The major­i­ty of COVID-19 patients do not need hos­pi­tal care, and can recov­er at home. While recov­er­ing, it is impor­tant to rest and stay at home. If your con­di­tion is bad, call 116 117, or in an emer­gency 112. Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about coro­n­avirus infec­tions and care can be found on the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Welfare’s web­site on Coro­n­avirus COVID-19 — Lat­est updates.

Addi­tion­al information:

Will every­one who gets a pos­i­tive result be called by Soite?

Per­sons who have received a pos­i­tive test result receive a text mes­sage. Vis­it the links in the mes­sage and read the instruc­tions care­ful­ly. Per­sons aged 60 and old­er will be con­tact­ed by phone if the test result is positive. 

Infec­tion track­ing is now done based on eval­u­a­tion, and infec­tions at the social and health care units are pri­or­i­tized. Fol­low the instruc­tions you receive in the text message.

I got a pos­i­tive result on a coro­n­avirus home test, what do I do?

Regard­less of the symp­toms, a pos­i­tive home test result has to be treat­ed the same as a pos­i­tive result from an offi­cial test.

If the home test is pos­i­tive, the result does not usu­al­ly need to be con­firmed with a test per­formed with­in the health care services.

A pos­i­tive home test result can be con­firmed with­in the health care ser­vices, if:

If you live in the same house­hold as a per­son who has received a pos­i­tive result of a home test or if you live with or have oth­er­wise been in close con­tact with a per­son who has been test­ed pos­i­tive by the health services:

Inform per­sons you have been in close con­tact with that you are ill. Ask those who have been exposed to your infec­tion to vol­un­tar­i­ly avoid con­tact with oth­ers for five days from the day you last met, to use a face mask and to observe good hand hygiene when they meet oth­er peo­ple. You can infect oth­ers already two days before your symp­toms begin.

If you have to stay home from work because of infec­tion and need sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease, you have to book an appoint­ment for a PCR test with­in Soite. On the oth­er hand, if there is no need for sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease, then a pos­i­tive result from an anti­gen home test does not need to be con­firmed with a lab­o­ra­to­ry test. In this case, you do not need to con­tact the health care ser­vices if you are feel­ing well. If need­ed, you can get a sick leave cer­tifi­cate via your occu­pa­tion­al health services/health centre.

A per­son who has rceived a pos­i­tive test result has to avoid all con­tacts with per­sons out­side the home i.e. stay at home in accor­dance with the instruc­tions above. The iso­la­tion time will be count­ed from the day the per­son was tested.

I got a pos­i­tive result on a coro­n­avirus test. Do oth­er per­sons liv­ing in the same house­hold as me also have to observe an iso­la­tion period?

The spread of an infec­tion hap­pens most eas­i­ly dur­ing the 1 to 2 days before the symp­toms begin and dur­ing the first few days of the infec­tion. There­fore, when the infor­ma­tion about the pos­i­tive result comes, oth­er peo­ple liv­ing in the same house­hold have already been exposed. If liv­ing con­di­tions that lim­it con­tacts are easy to real­ize, you can of course do this if you deem it beneficial.

I have under­ly­ing dis­eases, do I need treat­ment with anticoagulants?

A mild or asymp­to­matic coro­n­avirus infec­tion is not asso­ci­at­ed with a sig­nif­i­cant risk for blood clots, nor do you need treat­ment with anti­co­ag­u­lan­tics even if you have risk fac­tors. If you need treat­ment with anti­co­ag­u­lan­tics for oth­er rea­sons, this will be car­ried out in accor­dance with instruc­tions from your treat­ing physi­cian. Make sure your flu­id intake is suf­fi­cient, and try to be phys­i­cal­ly active. 

How­ev­er, it is still good to con­tact the health ser­vices if you have risk fac­tors (text in Finnish) and are not feel­ing well, and you lack the ener­gy or capac­i­ty to be phys­i­cal­ly active. You can con­tact your occu­pa­tion­al health care provider or the health cen­tre in your home municipality.

Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion: Instruc­tions for per­sons who have COVID-19

I got a pos­i­tive result on a coro­n­avirus test and I am pregnant/have recent­ly giv­en birth, what do I do?

If you are preg­nant, please con­tact the nurse spe­cial­ized in infec­tious diseases.

What is meant by isolation?

Per­sons who have con­tract­ed COVID-19, i.e. who have a con­firmed pos­i­tive coro­n­avirus test, have to stay at home and avoid social con­tacts. The dura­tion of the iso­la­tion depends on the day of testing.

If you get a pos­i­tive result on a coro­n­avirus test, then you can infect oth­ers. You will typ­i­cal­ly start infect­ing oth­ers from about two days before the first symp­toms appear, and the risk of infect­ing oth­ers that you are in con­tact with remains for about a week from the start of your symp­toms. The dura­tion of the iso­la­tion is based on this.

Do I get to know which coro­n­avirus vari­ant caused my infection?

Infor­ma­tion about the vari­ant does not affect the iso­la­tion arrange­ments in indi­vid­ual cas­es, nor does it help to pre­dict how the dis­ease will progress. With­in the Soite area, sequenc­ing is not done for all pos­i­tive coro­n­avirus tests. A small amount of ran­dom­ized sam­ples are sent to the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare for sequenc­ing. The results come with a few weeks’ delay, and patients are not informed about their indi­vid­ual results. Based on inci­dence curves and infor­ma­tion about the Helsin­ki region, the major­i­ty of pos­i­tive result­the s in our area is of the Omi­cron variant.

My iso­la­tion peri­od has end­ed, but I still have symp­toms. What do I do?

The dura­tion of the iso­la­tion is deter­mined based on the aver­age infec­tious­ness. A pos­i­tive PCR test does not direct­ly reveal how infec­tious your infec­tion is. The test may remain pos­i­tive for a long time due to virus rem­nants, so the test is not repeat­ed. Some symp­toms, such as cough­ing or changes in your sense of smell or taste may take weeks to pass, and they do not indi­cate infectiousness. 

The dura­tion of the iso­la­tion is deter­mined based on the aver­age infec­tious­ness. A pos­i­tive PCR test does not direct­ly reveal how infec­tious your infec­tion is. The test may remain pos­i­tive for a long time due to virus rem­nants, so the test is not repeat­ed. Some symp­toms, such as cough­ing or changes in your sense of smell or taste may take weeks to pass, and they do not indi­cate infectiousness. 

Do I get to know which coro­n­avirus vari­ant caused my infection?

Infor­ma­tion about the vari­ant does not affect the iso­la­tion arrange­ments in indi­vid­ual cas­es, nor does it help to pre­dict how the dis­ease will progress. With­in the Soite area, sequenc­ing is not done for all pos­i­tive coro­n­avirus tests.  A small amount of ran­dom­ized sam­ples are sent to the Finnish Insti­tute for Health and Wel­fare for sequenc­ing. The results come with a few weeks’ delay, and patients are not informed about their indi­vid­ual results. Based on inci­dence curves and infor­ma­tion about the Helsin­ki region, the major­i­ty of pos­i­tive result­the s in our area is of the Omi­cron variant.

My iso­la­tion peri­od has end­ed, but I still have symp­toms. What do I do?

The dura­tion of the iso­la­tion is deter­mined based on the aver­age infec­tious­ness. A pos­i­tive PCR test does not direct­ly reveal how infec­tious your infec­tion is. The test may remain pos­i­tive for a long time due to virus rem­nants, so the test is not repeat­ed. Some symp­toms, such as cough­ing or changes in your sense of smell or taste may take weeks to pass, and they do not indi­cate infectiousness.

It is impor­tant to con­tact the nurse spe­cial­ized in infec­tious dis­eases if you at the end of the iso­la­tion still have dif­fi­cult symp­toms and for exam­ple still have a fever. If you at the end of the iso­la­tion are still unable to return to work, a doc­tor with­in your occu­pa­tion­al health care ser­vices may pre­scribe sick leave in the usu­al fashion.

Where do I apply for sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious disease?

Sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease is grant­ed by Kela. You have the right to receive sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease with a med­ical cer­tifi­cate A. Con­tact your occu­pa­tion­al health or your health cen­tre in order to get a med­ical cer­tifi­cate A. Soite’s infec­tion con­trol unit no longer writes med­ical cer­tifi­cate A.

Per­sons who have the cus­tody of a child younger than 16 may also receive sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease if they have to be absent from work due to they them­selves or their child being ill. Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion (in Finnish) on Kela’s web­site: https://www.kela.fi/web/en/sickness-allowances-infectious-disease.

A cer­tifi­cate can be issued when the dis­ease has been con­firmed through a PCR test tak­en in Soite.

How is joint cus­tody of a child or vis­it­ing rights imple­ment­ed dur­ing a coro­n­avirus infection?

The sim­plest way to act is to have the child stay in the same house­hold for as long as they or their par­ent are ill, if the par­ents can agree on this. If this can­not be arranged and you and your child are asymp­to­matic, mat­ters relat­ed to cus­tody and vis­it­ing rights can be han­dled as usual.

If the child is diag­nosed with COVID-19, then the child has to stay in the same house­hold dur­ing the isolation.

Can I go to the store while I am ill?

It is for­bid­den to go to the store or oth­er pub­lic places while you are ill. If you have no-one who can bring you food and oth­er dai­ly goods, then you can order gro­ceries by using the deliv­ery ser­vices offered by the stores. Soite’s social ser­vices can also help you.

Can a repairman/plumber/other third par­ty per­son vis­it my home while I am ill?

No guests or oth­er third par­ty vis­i­tors may come to your home while you are ill. All such appoint­ments have to be can­celed or moved. Excep­tions are made only for vis­it­ing rights and joint cus­tody with regards to children.

If the sit­u­a­tion con­cerns an emer­gency vis­it by a plumber e.g. due to a drain block­age, con­tact the coro­n­avirus helpline for more detailed instructions.

I have an appoint­ment for a doctor’s visit/surgery/laboratory tests, but I am ill. What do I do?

In prin­ci­ple, you should not go any­where while you are ill, nor vis­it the lab­o­ra­to­ry. How­ev­er, there are excep­tions to this depend­ing on how urgent the vis­it or pro­ce­dure is. It is rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact the unit where the appoint­ment, pro­ce­dure or oth­er such­like has been booked in order to receive more detailed instructions.

I have been exposed and my employ­er has ordered me to take a coro­n­avirus test. What do I do?

This is not part of Soite’s test­ing cri­te­ria, the employ­er can­not order you to take a coro­n­avirus test. We rec­om­mend con­tact­ing your occu­pa­tion­al health ser­vices. If you want, you can also take a home test, but for an asymp­to­matic per­son it is not entire­ly reliable.

Addi­tion­al information:

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