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KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 1): The Ministry of Health (MoH) will be transparent in providing more detailed Covid-19 data and information to the public, according to its new minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
This is to change the public’s perception and accusations towards the ministry for being secretive and selective with Covid-19 data.
“We will release more detailed data by next week. This is the granular data that we will offer all to see, which is more than what has been provided before.
“I would like to thank the previous management of MoH and to Health DG (director-general) for the data provided on GitHub (a cloud-based repository hosting service provider), however, I have made the decision to increase the transparency of the MoH, so there will be no accusations of the MoH working in secrecy or becoming a stumbling block to those seeking information from the government,” said Khairy at a media briefing today.
The minister said some information that can be expected to be made public are those concerning the source of infections, information on brought in dead (BID) cases, as well those concerning adverse events following immunisation (AEFI).
Meanwhile, he said the country is expected to move from the Covid-19 pandemic phase into an endemic phase by the end of October, with 80% of the nation’s population expected to have been vaccinated by then.
According to him, the endemic phase would see more sectors reopen, with new Covid-19 norms being practised.
“We will wait for the next two months when 80% of the population are vaccinated. So, I can say by then, we will reach a phase where we start living with the virus. [But] right now, there are some states that are still in mitigation and containment mode,” he said.
As of Aug 31, the country has administered 34.75 million Covid-19 vaccine doses. A total of 19.74 million people across the country, representing 60.5% of the population, had received at least their first dose as of Aug 31, including 15.03 million people or 46% of the population who had completed their two-dose regimen.