Instruc­tions for Quar­an­tine and Iso­la­tion for Per­sons Who Have Been Exposed to or Who Have COVID-19

The instruc­tions for quar­an­tine and iso­la­tion below come into effect on 19th of Jan­u­ary 2022. Deci­sions on iso­la­tion and quar­an­tine that have been made before this date are in effect as before.

Iso­la­tion of a Per­son Who Has become Ill

The coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) has been clas­si­fied as a gen­er­al­ly haz­ardous com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease. Accord­ing to the Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Act (1227/2016), the physi­cian in charge of com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases in the munic­i­pal­i­ty or hos­pi­tal dis­trict may order a per­son into iso­la­tion if the per­son has con­tract­ed a gen­er­al­ly haz­ardous com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease or a dis­ease that is jus­ti­fi­ably sus­pect­ed to be gen­er­al­ly haz­ardous. A deci­sion about iso­la­tion is made in accor­dance with the Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Act (1227/2016). If it is not cer­tain that a patient who is at home, or some­where else, is fol­low­ing the instruc­tions s/he has been giv­en, s/he may be ordered into iso­la­tion in an iso­la­tion room in a health care facil­i­ty in accor­dance with the Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Act (1227/2016).

A per­son who has a coro­n­avirus infec­tion is sent a text mes­sage with instruc­tions on iso­la­tion and for treat­ing the infec­tion at home. Per­sons over the age of 60 are con­tact­ed by phone. The appli­ca­tion Bud­dy­Care is no longer used. The per­son must be reach­able at all times and fol­low the instruc­tions from the unit for con­trol of infec­tious diseases.

The iso­la­tion peri­od for a per­son who is ill is 5 days from the day of test­ing regard­less of the symp­toms. Addi­tion­al coro­n­avirus tests are not nec­es­sary. The day of the test is day 0.

A patient can end their iso­la­tion of their own voli­tion if the fever is gone and their oth­er symp­toms are clear­ly dis­ap­pear­ing. If severe symp­toms per­sist, the per­son who is ill must con­tact his/her own health care cen­tre or occu­pa­tion­al health unit in order to get sick leave. A dry cough or a change in your sense of smell/taste is not a rea­son for you to con­tin­ue isolation.

An iso­la­tion order cer­tifi­cate will be issued auto­mat­i­cal­ly for 5 days start­ing from the day of test­ing. The iso­la­tion order cer­tifi­cate works as a cer­tifi­cate for sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease for the employ­er. The iso­la­tion order cer­tifi­cate will be sent auto­mat­i­cal­ly by mail to the patient’s home address with­in a few weeks after the iso­la­tion has end­ed. If a fam­i­ly mem­ber needs a cer­tifi­cate for sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease, they have to con­tact Soite’s nurse spe­cial­ized in infec­tious dis­eases on the phone num­ber  040 804 2781 (10 am to 2 pm). Find out your day of test­ing before the phone call. The quar­an­tine time is cal­cu­lat­ed from that day.

Dur­ing home iso­la­tion, you have to avoid all con­tact with per­sons out­side the home.

When suf­fer­ing from a coro­n­avirus infec­tion it is espe­cial­ly impor­tant to read the home care instruc­tions for the coro­n­avirus disease.

Link: Treat­ing coro­n­avirus infec­tion at home

Home Tests for COVID-19

A pos­i­tive test result in a home test has to be treat­ed the same as a pos­i­tive result from an offi­cial test. A pos­i­tive test result may be con­firmed in the health care ser­vices if the symp­toms are seri­ous, if the per­son who is ill belongs to a risk group, is preg­nant, works in social or health care ser­vices, needs a cer­tifi­cate for sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease for himself/herself or for a fam­i­ly mem­ber or needs a result for a COVID-19 passport.

Inform­ing Close Con­tacts Who Have Been Exposed to the Coronavirus

A per­son infect­ed with coro­n­avirus can infect per­sons who are in close con­tact with them dur­ing the 48 hours before the infect­ed per­son get symp­toms. Close con­tact means encoun­ters indoors where the par­tic­i­pants spend more than 30 min­utes at a dis­tance less than 2 meters from each other.

We rec­om­mend that an infect­ed per­son inform their close con­tacts about the expo­sure them­selves:

• If the person who has been exposed works in the social and health care services or is over 12 years old and has an incomplete vaccination protection (0 or 1 vaccinations). The exposed person must contact a nurse specialized in infectious diseases.
• A person under the age of 12 is not put into quarantine in accordance with the Communicable Diseases Act (does not apply to family exposures).

Quar­an­tine Instruc­tions for Per­sons Who Have Been Exposed

If an exposed per­son has symp­toms indica­tive of the coro­n­avirus dis­ease (a cough, run­ny nose, sore throat, fever, mus­cle aches, headache), the exposed per­son should make an appoint­ment for a coro­n­avirus test by fill­ing out the online Omaolo ser­vice coro­na symp­tom assess­ment at omaolo.fi/?lang=en or by call­ing Soite’s coro­n­avirus helpline on 06 828 7499, Mon­day to Sun­day between 8 am and 4 pm.

Per­sons liv­ing in the same house­hold as the per­son who is ill (fam­i­ly expo­sure) must com­ply with home quar­an­tine in accor­dance with the Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Act for 5 days from the day of test­ing of the per­son who has been the lat­est to become ill. When fam­i­ly expo­sure has hap­pened, those who have been exposed must be in home quar­an­tine irre­spec­tive of the vac­ci­na­tion protection.

Quar­an­tine means being at home and the aim is to try to pre­vent fur­ther infec­tions if the per­son in quar­an­tine should con­tract the coro­n­avirus infec­tion. Quar­an­tine means restrict­ing the free­dom of move­ment of a healthy per­son. The physi­cian in charge of com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases in the munic­i­pal­i­ty or hos­pi­tal dis­trict may order a per­son into quar­an­tine if the per­son has con­tract­ed a gen­er­al­ly haz­ardous dis­ease or a dis­ease that is jus­ti­fi­ably sus­pect­ed to be gen­er­al­ly haz­ardous or if it is jus­ti­fi­able to sus­pect the per­son has con­tract­ed such a dis­ease, the Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Act (1227/2016)

If a per­son who is in quar­an­tine gets symp­toms, it is rec­om­mend­ed that per­sons who live in the same house­hold avoid unnec­es­sary social con­tacts until the per­son who is in quar­an­tine has received his/her test result.

Sick­ness Allowance on Account of an Infec­tious Dis­ease Com­pen­sates for Loss of Earn­ings Dur­ing Quar­an­tine and Isolation

Kela can pay sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease if an employ­ee has been ordered to be absent from work in order to pre­vent the spread of an infec­tious dis­ease, for exam­ple the coro­n­avirus. A guardian of a child under 16 years of age has the right to sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease if the child has been ordered to be in quar­an­tine and the guardian is, as a result, unable to work.

The sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease does not include a wait­ing peri­od: it is a full com­pen­sa­tion for the loss of income suf­fered because of absence from work, iso­la­tion or quar­an­tine. The amount of the allowance is based on the salary the employ­ee would have been paid had the employ­ee been at work. An entrepreneur’s dai­ly allowance is based on the YEL or MYEL year­ly income at the time when the absence from work began (YEL = Self-Employed Per­sons’ Pen­sions Act; MYEL = Farm­ers’ Pen­sions Act).

In order to pay sick­ness allowance on account of an infec­tious dis­ease, Kela needs the deci­sion by the physi­cian in charge of com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases in the munic­i­pal­i­ty or hos­pi­tal dis­trict about absence from work, iso­la­tion or quarantine.

Expo­sure Sit­u­a­tions in Schools and in Day Care

Expo­sure to coro­n­avirus in schools or in day care does not require quar­an­tine under the Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases Act. That is, if coro­n­avirus infec­tions are detect­ed in a school class or day care group, asymp­to­matic mem­bers of the groups can con­tin­ue their nor­mal school or day care activ­i­ties despite expo­sure. The per­sons in charge do not need to con­tact a nurse spe­cial­ized in infec­tious dis­eases in case of infections.

Expo­sure Sit­u­a­tions at Care Facil­i­ties, Nurs­ing Home Units and Oth­er Com­mon Accommodations

In case of sus­pi­cion of coro­n­avirus expo­sure, the head of the unit should con­tact the infec­tious dis­eases nurse imme­di­ate­ly to pre­vent an epi­dem­ic at a hos­pi­tal or sim­i­lar com­mon accom­mo­da­tions (recep­tion cen­tres, cours­es, camps, accom­mo­da­tions for sea­son­al and con­struc­tion workers).