KUALA LUMPUR: About 4% of the total number of recorded Covid-19 cases was tracked involving those who used the self-health assessment function in the MySejahtera mobile app, Parliament was told.
In a written reply dated Nov 12, the Health Ministry said there were 23 million users of the app, which is used to trace those who came into contact with positive Covid-19 cases, among other functions.
“To date, 4% of the total number of cases were detected through the self-health assessment function in the app.
“The rest were detected indirectly through the app, where a list of vulnerable cases especially could be given quickly and accurately to officers in authority,” said the ministry in reply to a question from Dr Ong Kian Ming (PH-Bangi).
However, the exact number of those tracked via the use of the app was not stated, which would include close contacts of positive Covid-19 cases.
Dr Ong had asked the ministry to reveal the number of Covid-19 cases detected by the MySejahtera app and the warning issued to users who were in places visited by those who had Covid-19.
The Health Ministry said the MySejahtera app, which was launched on April 20, was to assist Covid-19 pandemic management in Malaysia.
“It includes Covid-19 case detection through self-assessment, detection of close contacts, disseminating the latest and verified Covid-19 information as well as general health information,” it said.
The ministry explained that MySejahtera initially only had one module but eight more had been added to meet the needs of the ministry for additional contact information, location of the case and contacts, handling of quarantine and quarantine stations.
The Health Ministry noted that the hotspot detector module in MySejahtera showed the location of current as well as potential infections.
It noted that the app does not use an active GPS location feature.
“Therefore, this app will not be able to provide automatic notification or track an individual as it violates users’ personal rights and contradicts ministry policy,” it said. – THE STAR