Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has given the MySejahtera team a week to sort out all issues related to the issuance of Covid-19 digital certificates.

“I have ordered the MySejahtera team to resolve all problems related to the app including the problem related to the issuance of digital certificates immediately,” he told reporters.

He added that for those who have been fully vaccinated but have yet to be issued the vaccination certificates on the app can use their physical cards as proof.

“For the time being, I will allow them to use the physical vaccination cards,” he noted.

For those who were vaccinated under the Selangor government’s Selvax program, they can use the certificates issued under the Selangkah app for the time being.

“They can use that for now until they get their digital cert on MySejahtera,” he said.

For fully vaccinated individuals, especially the elderly without smartphones and who live apart from their children or guardian, the digital vaccination certificate is not the only way of proving your vaccination status.

The Health Ministry (MOH) has clarified that the physical vaccination card which was presented to each individual upon completion of their first and second doses at the vaccination centres (PPV) can also be used as proof of their vaccination status.

“Although the MySejahtera app is the most preferred and easy option for users to prove their vaccination status, your physical vaccination cards still hold good,” said senior principal assistant director of the ministry’s Disease Control Division, Dr Mahesh Appanan.

Many others have also complained that their app does not update with the digital vaccination certificate details, even after completing their doses.

This is actually due to the fact that they may have not been able to fully complete their details during their appointments at the PPV.

To resolve this issue, simply click on the Helpdesk option in your app, select option “M” and update your current details there.

MOH needs to collect users’ data from the MySejahtera app and cross-check it with the information from the PPVs for verification on users’ vaccination status, before resubmitting it and having it reflected in the app.

“It is a tedious process because all Malaysians’ digital vaccination certificates are compliant with international regulations and requirements and the data runs in a blockchain system.

“There are a lot of checks and balances processes to ensure the digital vaccination certificate presented in the app is digitally certified after many rounds of verification,” said Dr Mahesh.

On Sept 2, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced the launch of new features, which include the check-out button and display of the vaccination status and Covid-19 risk of the app user at one glance to improve contact tracing.

Dr Mahesh has also reassured the public that forgetting to check out from premises is not a major concern.

As of right now, MOH already has automated contact tracing to flag out those termed as “casual contact”, and uses the algorithm to identify them based on an individual’s exposure to a Covid-19 positive individual.

“On a daily basis, we (MOH) are sending almost 70,000 to 80,000 notifications throughout the country to those identified as casual contacts,” Dr Mahesh said.

To enhance contact tracing methodology and output even further, the check-out button has been introduced to gauge how long an individual has been in a particular premises.

Even if an individual forgets to check out after leaving, it is not a major issue because the MOH already has algorithms in place to calculate the average time a person spends at a premises.

“Of course, all this goes back to the retrospective data that we have collected and studied so far before we input it into our algorithm,” he added.

As the MOH strives to empower people to follow the SOP, instead of enforcing them, this is why the check-out button is not compulsory.

“In actual fact, we had so many suggestions of putting QR codes for checkout. But we didn’t want to burden the people and add to the check-out process.

“Even the addition of other features such as GPS tracking may complicate the process.

“Enabling these additional features would involve individual rights and consent.

“For now, we feel that it is enough to have an active input by users, instead of MOH continuously following the movement of people.

“We can still manage with our current resources, but if the time comes and the need arises, we shall revise our privacy policy and provide more explanation to the people,” said Dr Mahesh.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by JIA QI CHOK

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