The companies to develop the cross-border feature for HOIA are Iglu, Cybernetica, ASA Quality, Heisi, FOB Solutions, Mobi Lab, Icefire and Velvet.

Kerstin-Gertrud Karblane, chief specialist at the department of communicable disease surveillance and epidemic control at the Health Board, said the HOIA app allows the Health Board to identify those close contacts to whom they would otherwise not get so fast. 

"Considering that HOIA is running on the mobile phones of close to 273,000 people today, it is already a very good tool for containing the spread of the virus and making work easier for people at the Health Board," Karblane said.

She added that the HOIA app is particularly useful when the infected person themselves cannot say with whom they have come into contact.

"It's definitely important to emphasize that if you fall ill, please don't forget to tag yourself as ill on HOIA as well - in this way the app can start doing its work," the official said.

The public procurement tender to find a development partner for HOIA was carried out by the IT center of excellence called Health and Welfare Information Systems Center (TEHIK), which continues to be responsible for the hosting of HOIA and provision of technical support.

"In our view, HOIA definitely has been a positive example of cooperation with the private sector, from whom we have received good advice and valuable experience in the creation and development of the mobile app," Tanel Tera, head of e-services at TEHIK, said.

"We are glad to be able to soon implement the next technical solutions in order for HOIA to be a better tool still in further containment of the spread of the virus," he added.

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