KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Malaysians will have to continue to use the MySejahtera app to scan their presence when entering closed quarters, Putrajaya said today as it has not decided to end its use for now.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said at the peak of the infections during the Omicron wave, the ministry found that 45 per cent of people in close contact at one point, had made the notification through the app.

He said those that were informed had self-isolated and the end result were fewer infections.

“So to say this is not relevant anymore I have to disagree as the contact tracing still works. These individuals who were in close contact have been sharing their updates on the app so we still feel it has some value.

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“However since we have passed the peak of Omicron and are in the transition phase to move to an endemic stage we at the ministry are looking at the infection patterns and will decide in a few weeks if we still need to scan using the MySejahtera in the near future,” he said during his weekly briefing.

Critics have pointed to MySejahtera’s use of personal data, exacerbated by the recent case involving its intellectual property.

Various civil groups and politicians from both sides of the divide have raised concerns about data security and privacy after news emerged that MySejahtera was to be sold to a private company.

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Some citizens have voiced their concern that the MySejahtera app is not protecting their privacy and have stopped using it to register themselves.

It has also been said the app doesn’t have any uses for tracing Covid-19 close contacts due to the large number of cases still being reported daily.

Some suggested it be used as a personal health record, since it is already linked to individual identities and is non-transferable.