As most of the locations listed by the system have been major shopping malls and supermarkets, Pua said HIDE’s inaccurate data could create unintended negative consequences for businesses.
“The government should have realised that something was amiss when most of the locations listed by HIDE were major shopping malls and supermarkets. Pretty much every single mall was listed as a potential cluster based on the data collected in the past seven days.
“This was despite the fact that historical data showed that shopping malls contributed to less than 5% of the Covid-19 clusters, as opposed to factories (48%) and construction sites (11.6%),” the Damansara MP said in a statement today.
The HIDE system was developed by Bank Negara Malaysia and the health ministry. It is intended to be an early warning to prevent spikes in Covid-19 infections by using data from the MySejahtera application.
Pua claimed HIDE is flawed because the system’s designers treat all MySejahtera codes “equally” in terms of risk and compliance with the SOPs.
“Except that they are not at all equal,” he said.
He also questioned the science, technology and innovation ministry’s (Mosti) methodology in identifying “high-risk” locations.
Her said there is a big difference between shopping malls and a retail outlet or mini-market operating out of a shop lot or an office space, because the latter has limited space and is therefore riskier.
“However, in absolute terms, the number of people deemed somewhat ‘risky’ – a methodology that has not been clarified by Mosti – will naturally be much higher in malls than that in the individual retail outlet.
“That’s the simple reason why more than 90% of the locations issued by HIDE comprised malls and supermarkets. This is despite the malls presenting no higher risk of becoming Covid-19 clusters, or being potentially even safer than other sites.”
He said that unless the system’s issue is resolved, shopping malls and supermarkets should be allowed to continue operating.
MySejahtera and HIDE not effective enough, says Umno VP
Meanwhile, Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the use of MySejahtera and HIDE has not been effective enough because of the government’s weak strategies in managing the pandemic.
“We cannot keep implementing movement control orders over and over again. Apart from impacting the public economically and mentally, it does not seem to have restored the situation,” he said.
Khaled said there is a greater need to leverage technology to curb the spread of Covid-19 and effectively track affected individuals.
“The MySejahtera tracking technology in the country is not quite effective and far from adequate,” he said in a statement, adding that HIDE is also not included in the app.