Dzul wants Putrajaya to share pertinent data with S'gor Covid-19 task force

CORONAVIRUS | The federal government should share with the Selangor special Covid-19 task force pertinent anonymised data to achieve targeted response, urged former health minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

The head of the state task force said that they are currently not getting that kind of information from the federal government, which would help in micro-targeted testing in areas rather than a mere blanket one.

Speaking during a programme with Astro Awani last night, Dzulkefly (pictured, above) assured that the task force does not seek patient personal information but rather anonymised data that would help in analytics to zoom in on areas for testing.

“Much as we want the authorities to share with us, we are not getting that kind of very pertinent clinical information. We do not want anything on the patient’s identity, phone number, or age.

“We want it anonymised. We want data on population where we can do relevant pertinent analytics, to zoom in on areas, not just districts.

“We can then micro-target our testing, so it becomes more targeted rather than blanket,” he said.

When asked on the difficulty of the state task force to get the data from the federal government, Dzulkefly claimed that there was a bit of reluctance on the part of the former to share the information.

Even so, he further stressed that patient privacy via data protection must be observed during such sharing of data.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

Malaysiakini is providing free access to the most important updates on the coronavirus pandemic. You can find them here.

Help keep independent media alive - subscribe to Malaysiakini.

India, Pakistan zoom in on tabligh group cluster

Covid-19: Sabah seeks more autonomy to manage food stockpiles

Mass disinfections to combat coronavirus pose health hazard

Malaysian armed forces deny physically assaulting civilian