Sarawak to publish when and where Covid-19 patients have been

 

Sarawak will be releasing the date and time of when Covid-19 patients have visited locations, starting today.

MySejahtera alerts will also be sent to those who have checked in to the affected locations, urging them to get tested.

Sarawak Disaster Management Committee chief Douglas Uggah Embah (above) said previously, the state had only announced where Covid-19 patients had been to, without saying when they were there.

“After discussion, we decided that a new measure of how we can get people to cooperate is by announcing the location, date and time so that if members of the public feel that they have been to the infected area within that period that was announced, then we ask them to go for Covid-19 screening," he was quoted as saying by Borneo Post yesterday.

Uggah said the change might be sensitive but noted that Singapore has a similar practice to help tackle the spread of Covid-19.

Singapore publishes a list of locations where patients had visited for more than 30 minutes while they were infectious.

The federal Health Ministry has thus far refused to release similar data.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had defended this decision, saying it is to avoid stigmatisation.

Instead of disclosing the exact locations, he said the better way is to sanitise the locations to ensure it is safe to reopen for public access.

Previously, Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming urged the ministry to emulate Singapore in revealing locations affected to empower the public to take precautions.

Ong said this would help build public confidence, instead of the vague announcements identifying a wider district which could cause distress to everyone living in the district.

Malaysiakini's Covid-19 location updates are based primarily on notices sent out by companies and management of residential areas. - Mkini