Page 150 - COVID-19 COUNTRY REPORT: Moving Beyond Pandemic EDITION 2022

Moving Beyond Pandemic (Edition 2022) National Institutes of Health

v. User-friendly Interface: The application is user-friendly and easy to use, with clear instructions
and simple navigation. This has helped to encourage widespread adoption among the
Malaysian population, enabling the government to effectively manage the pandemic through
digital means.

MySejahtera allows rapid detection of positive cases at international points of entry upon activation
by travellers. The “check-in” feature allowed the detection of clusters for positive index cases. As
an example, the Keratong 5 cluster was tracked down to three generations using MySejahtera
functionalities. This feature was to hasten contact tracing of COVID-19-positive cases and to halt
COVID-19 spread in time. On 25 December 2021, a new function of MySJ trace was introduced to
the application to strengthen contract tracing. This Bluetooth-reliant feature enables more effective
close contact tracing for positive COVID-19 cases.
Another special feature was to allow users from local or international travellers to perform health
self-assessments once they check in to the private quarantine centre. Cases with positive status
would be issued with a legal digital home surveillance order (under Act 342) without needing a
physical certificate issued from the nearest health office from February 2022 [3]. The detection of
warning signs by MySejahtera would alert the nearest COVID-19 assessment centre to conduct a
virtual risk assessment of disease severity. If the case warrants an admission, the respective on-call
medical officer from the health office will book a bed through Bed Management Unit (BMU), and an
ambulance is arranged to transport the case to the hospital.
This application also assists in vaccination management, including tracking users’ vaccination
timelines and relevant appointments. The Malaysian government’s COVID-19 vaccination and test
certificates are recognised by the European Union (EU) and included under the EU Digital COVID-19
Certificate trust framework to facilitate the free movement of Malaysian travellers within the EU.
This recognition was granted as the vaccination and test certificates issued by Malaysia are also in
accordance with the Union’s Vaccine Management System and are equivalent to those issued by
Regulation (EU) 2021/953 [4].
Other functions include appointments and consultations for primary care, health information
resources and a help desk. The Ministry of Health and National Security Council (MKN) officially
used the application for monitoring individuals’ quarantine at home, including those who travel
back from overseas from 10 June 2020 onwards. Regular updates have endowed MySejahtera with
a greater scope and increasing functionality.
The latest function of the MySejahtera has expanded not merely for COVID-19 cases but also for other
communicable diseases such as dengue, rabies, measles and hand, foot and mouth disease. The
latest version of MySejahtera can also store users’ health information and childhood immunisation
records for babies born from 1 July 2022, as announced by the Health Minister on 1 July.
Overall, MySejahtera has been an important tool in the fight against COVID-19 in Malaysia, helping
to facilitate contact tracing, health monitoring, and vaccination efforts while providing timely and
relevant information to users (Figure 7.3). Despite the several reported glitches and bugs that involved
the PUS COVID-19 Home Surveillance Order (HSO), Person Under Surveillance (PUS) statuses and
vaccine certificates, MySejahtera remains an outstanding application for disease surveillance and
digital assets in this country. MOH is in the process of transitioning MySejahtera from a COVID-19
application to a public health application.

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