Covid-19 data to be released weekly

PETALING JAYA: Starting March, information on Covid-19 cases may be updated on a weekly basis on the Health Ministry’s KKMNow website instead of daily.

The ministry has been providing daily Covid-19 data via the website as well as weekly reporting of Covid-19 information via the director-general’s media statements.

However, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) said the ministry was looking into doing away with daily updates on the KKMNow portal.

“We are currently reviewing the frequency of Covid-19 data and information reporting through the KKMNow website.

“Potentially, starting from March, it will be changed from daily to weekly.

“This will allow us to harmonise the frequency for both situational reports of Covid-19 via the KKMNow website and (my) media statements,” he told The Star.

Dr Noor Hisham said that regardless of any potential change, the monitoring and reporting of Covid-19 data and information would remain the same internally within the various levels of the Health Ministry such as districts, states and headquarters.

He said the Health Ministry was using similar approaches to keeping tabs on Covid-19 as with other endemic diseases such as dengue.

Covid-19 is a notifiable disease under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342), which means that positive cases are required by law to be reported to the authorities.

The same goes for other notifiable diseases such as dengue.

“The First Schedule of Act 342 contains the list of notifiable infectious diseases in Malaysia.

“Both dengue and Covid-19 are notifiable diseases under Act 342.

“Through the mandatory notification requirement of these diseases, the Health Ministry can keep tabs on them.

“Therefore, we can conclude that similar approaches (can be) used for both diseases,” he said.

Understanding the importance of transparency and real-time sharing of data, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry had also been using dedicated portals to share its data with the public, especially on infectious diseases such as Covid-19.

Covid-19 data is available on the KKMNow website, previously known as CovidNow, while dengue data is shared via the iDengue portal.

“Understanding the role played by the community in combating dengue, the Health Ministry in collaboration with the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry established a dedicated website known as iDengue.

“Through this website, we aim to increase the awareness of public and local communities who are residing within active dengue outbreak areas for them to proactively implement preventive and control measures.

“This includes cleaning their dwellings, finding and destroying Aedes breeding grounds to ensure that their area is free from dengue,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

When Covid-19 first hit Malaysian shores in 2020, cases were shared daily by the Health Ministry via social media and press statements.

Dr Noor Hisham also appeared regularly in live press conferences to report on the daily Covid-19 development in Malaysia and answered questions by the media as Malaysians watched on their televisions while on lockdown at home.

The Health Ministry then moved towards sharing all daily information related to Covid-19 through the CovidNow website, which was launched in September 2021.

The portal also included more granular data such as daily tests, patients treated at low-risk treatment and quarantine centres, hospitalisation rates, and intensive care unit and ventilator usage.

The CovidNow website was then expanded and renamed KKMNow in October 2022.

The new website includes everything that was in CovidNow but also has information on health facilities and programmes such as blood donation, health screening and Peka B40 as well as data on contagious diseases.