MOH turns down Selangor's request for Covid data due to 'past incidents'

 

The Health Ministry has declined to share its raw data on Covid-19 with other parties including Selangor state government due to the unwanted past incidents, which it did not elaborate on.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba (above), in a parliamentary reply, claimed different interpretations of this information could cause public confusion and panic.

"Due to a few unwanted past incidents related to the management of raw data, the ministry could not meet the request for some quarters to gain access to the raw data on Covid-19.

"This is meant to avoid the risk of conflicting and different interpretations by various agencies which may lead to panic and confusion in the community over the information conveyed to them," he told Dzulkefly Ahmad (Pakatan Harapan-Kuala Selangor).

Dzulkefly, who is also the head of Selangor's Covid-19 task force (STFC) had asked on the Health Ministry's preparedness to establish inter-district data-sharing cooperation, especially with Selangor during the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

The STFC had requested for Selangor to be furnished with the Covid data six months ago, he said.

On Oct 19, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this could not be done adding this was to ensure data interpretation was standardised.

Meanwhile, Selangor state executive councillor Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud said the state government was forced to play a guessing game in its efforts to curb further infections without access to the raw data on Covid-19.

The state government had hoped to merge its contact tracing application, Selangkah, with the national app MySejahtera for ease of data gathering, she was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail at the Selangor state legislative assembly today.

"What we know is only the information tabled by the health director-general during his press conferences, the Selangor Health Department on its website and Facebook and sometimes random information from certain parties.

“Sometimes it's a guessing game and we are quite saddened with this situation,” she said. - Mkini