The Malaysian Insight

THE Hotspot Identification for Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system is still in use, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

The coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme said the system’s data are not being revealed to the public because of current movement restrictions.

“We are still using HIDE at the Health Ministry’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre.

“We are not yet issuing the data publicly because of the current restrictions to movements but HIDE is still being used to alert different places if there are any potential risk of a place becoming a cluster,” the science, technology and innovation minister told a press conference today.

Launched in May, HIDE is a big data and artificial intelligence system used to identify potential virus hotspots ahead of time and allow for more targeted interventions in managing the pandemic.

On May 8, the government released a list of more than 100 hotspots, which included shopping malls and LRT stations.

It led to some confusion among the public and operators of shopping malls when some locations were told to close immediately.

However, no list has been released since then, leading to questions from several quarters whether it was still in use.

Khairy previously said the list of hotspots was released to help members of the public plan their journey and decide whether they should go to a particular place to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infection. – August 2, 2021.