PUTRAJAYA, Dec 28 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has encouraged the use of the MySJ Trace feature of the MySejahtera application in public places, public transport, eateries and shopping malls.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said MySJ Trace uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to detect individuals who are close contacts of Covid-19 cases.

He said if the individuals who tested positive for the virus agreed to share information with MOH, a notification would be sent to inform others that they have become a casual contact.

"The information is only contained in your phone. Only if you want to share to give that permission. We don’t keep the information. Otherwise, Apple and Google will not approve this upgrade because they are very particular about personal data,” he said in a press conference here today.

Khairy said, for now, the ministry would only encourage the public to use the feature, but did not rule out the possibility of making it mandatory for entry to premises if the take-up rate is low.

He explained that the feature would help the ministry to carry out contact tracing and ensure the community could co-exist with Covid-19 safely and responsibly so that the government would not have to implement drastic measures such as restrictions to control the spread of Covid-19.

MySJ Trace is a mobile contact tracing function using a community-driven approach where mobile phone users can exchange information within a certain distance that allows identification of a MySJ Trace user who has been in close contact with another user who is positive for Covid-19.

In addition, Khairy said a virtual meeting held with several associations such as the Malaysian Retail Chain Association, Business Events Council Malaysia, Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers, Malaysia Shopping Malls Association, Prasarana Bhd and Malaysian Indian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association had agreed to encourage the use of MySJ Trace at their premises. — Bernama