Suspend ‘deeply flawed’ HIDE system, Pua tells govt

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Tony Pua wants the government to immediately suspend the newly developed Hotspot Identification by Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) detection system, claiming that its Covid-19 hotspot listing data is “deeply flawed”.

As most of the locations listed by the system were major shopping malls and supermarkets, Pua said HIDE’s inaccurate data could create unintended negative consequences for businesses.

“The government should have realised that something was amiss when most of the locations listed by HIDE were major shopping malls and supermarkets. Pretty much every single mall was listed as a potential cluster based on the data collected in the past seven days.

“This was despite the fact that historical data showed that shopping malls contributed to less than 5% of the Covid-19 clusters, as opposed to factories (48%) and construction sites (11.6%),” the Damansara MP said in a statement today.

The HIDE system was developed by Bank Negara Malaysia and the health ministry. Its objective was to be an early warning to prevent spikes in the number of Covid-19 infections by using data from the MySejahtera application.

Pua claimed HIDE was flawed because the system’s designers treated all MySejahtera codes “equally” in terms of risk and compliance with the SOPs.

“Except that they are not at all equal,” he said.

He also questioned the science, technology and innovation ministry’s (Mosti) methodology in identifying “high-risk” locations.

Her said there was a big difference between shopping malls and a retail outlet or mini-market operating out of a shop lot or an office space, because the latter had limited space and was therefore riskier.

“However, in absolute terms, the number of people deemed somewhat ‘risky’ – a methodology that has not been clarified by Mosti – will naturally be much higher in malls than that in the individual retail outlet.

“That’s the simple reason why more than 90% of the locations issued by HIDE comprised malls and supermarkets. This is despite the malls presenting no higher risk of becoming Covid-19 clusters, or being potentially even safer than other sites.”

He said that unless the system’s issue was resolved, shopping malls and supermarkets should be allowed to continue operating.

MySejahtera and HIDE not effective enough, says Umno VP

Meanwhile, Umno vice-president Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the use of MySejahtera and HIDE was not effective enough because of the government’s weak strategies in managing the pandemic.

“We cannot keep implementing movement control orders over and over again. Apart from impacting the public economically and mentally, it does not seem to have restored the situation,” he said.

Khaled said there was a greater need to leverage technology to curb the spread of Covid-19 and effectively track affected individuals.

“The MySejahtera tracking technology in the country is not quite effective and far from adequate,” he said in a statement, adding that HIDE was also not included in the app. — Free Malaysia Today