By Wahida Fitriah
PETALING JAYA, 30 December 2020: The government is not ruling out the possibility of forcing MySejahtera users to activate a new launched feature which uses Bluetooth technology to enable contact tracing.
Minister of Health, Khairy Jamaluddin said his Ministry was currently encouraging the use of MySejahtera Trace (MySJ Trace) feature which was unveiled on Sunday (26 December), but if the COVID-19 cases increase, “more strict measures” would be needed.
“When we introduced something new, the first thing is to encourage people to take it up,” he told a press conference.
‘If many don’t use the MySJ Trace feature, it’s pointless. We must have a good number of people using it for us to detect close contacts.
“For now, we’re encouraging its use. Of course, if the situation gets worse and we don’t have a high take-up rate, maybe we’ll have to make it mandatory to enter premises.
“But we don’t want to do that. The message to the public is very clear: don’t force us to do it,” he said.
The MySJ Trace function was developed to meet the needs of the Find, Test, Trace, Isolation, Support (FTTIS) programme which is used by the Health Ministry to control the spread of COVID-19.
When an individual is confirmed positive for COVID-19, a notification will be sent via the MySejahtera application to obtain permission to share their close contact information.
If the individual gives permission, MySejahtera will give the Health Ministry access to this information so that it can conduct a risk assessment on the close contact data detected via Bluetooth, with the Health Ministry then able to identify and trace the close contacts.
Khairy said he had conducted a virtual meeting with representatives from Malaysia Shopping Malls Association (PPK), the Malaysian Indian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association and Prasarana and they agreed to enforce the use of MySejahtera Trace at their premises.
The feature would ensure that Malaysians could live with COVID-19 in a safe and responsible manner so that the government did not have to resort to ‘blunt’ measures such as lockdowns, the Health Minister said. ***
Source: Daily Express