KUALA LUMPUR – The government will on May 7 start a public listing of potential Covid-19 hotspots to allow the people to make informed decisions, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
With this information, he said, the public can better decide their movements, and businesses must act quickly to be removed from the list.
The Hotspots Identification for Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system uses big data and artificial intelligence to predict clusters.
“Therefore, this is a pre-emptive (and) predictive system,” Khairy told a press conference.
“Analysis from HIDE will give vital information to the authorities, including the Health Ministry, to take pre-emptive action that is targeted to avoid the creation of clusters in the said hotpots.”
He said the government has agreed to publicly list these areas starting Friday to allow owners of premises and the public to avoid places where clusters could potentially erupt.
Among the steps that can be taken by affected owners are conducting virus screening for workers, imposing tighter restrictions on crowds, stepping up gatekeeping through the use of contact-tracing app MySejahtera, and not allowing those identified as high risk to enter premises.
He said the system will allow people to self-regulate their movements.
“The implementation of this system will prevent the government from having to take drastic action, such as imposing tighter movement restrictions. This is the government’s move to ensure our intervention has a more targeted approach.”
Khairy said by yesterday, HIDE has identified 1,660 hotspots nationwide, an increase from 1,170 last week, and 90% of the Covid-19 cases reported occurred at 0.2% of the premises registered under MySejahtera.
With the system, he said, the authorities can focus on specific areas instead of imposing wide-scale movement curbs.
He urged premises that have yet to register under MySejahtera to do so immediately.
“The government also encourages the practice of residential areas and meeting rooms having their own QR codes (for tracking purposes).”
He called for business owners to have QR codes at workers’ dormitories, for a HIDE analysis to be conducted if needed.
Even with the system in place, he said, everyone still needs to abide by Covid-19 standard operating procedures. – The Vibes, May 4, 2021
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