KUALA LUMPUR — The MySejahtera app will not be used to track those who flee from an area under a movement control order (MCO), Malaysia's health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah assured the public on Friday (Nov 13).

Following concerns that data from the app might be misused by the police, he said that the Ministry of Health (MoH) has ownership of the app and will only utilise data from it for active detection of new Covid-19 cases.

“MySejahtera belongs to MoH, it is not true to say we use MySejahtera to track the people down. If the case is positive in a new place then we get data to help MoH get active detection.

“If you looked back to the Seri Petaling cluster, we got police assistance to track down suspected cases but we use other methods and not MySejahtera,” he said in his daily press conference.

“MySejahtera is used for active [case] detection. We will keep [the data] confidential.

“We don’t even know if those people who ran away before a Temco (targeted enhanced movement-control order) was declared in that area are using MySejahtera,” he added, referring to the temporary enhanced movement control order (MCO).

On Thursday, Sepang district disaster management committee chairman Mohamad Zain A. Hamid reportedly said that it would seek the assistance of the police to detect 400 residents who failed to return home after receiving information that barbed wire fencing would be installed in Medan 88, Sepang.

Mr Mohamad Zain said the number was uncovered following interviews with residents, with the police looking for them via MySejahtera registrations.

Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob Senior said among the 400 missing are workers, whose employers had moved out of the area once it was announced that the place would be placed under enhanced MCO and said the authorities will be actively pursuing them. MALAY MAIL