KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Koh Kar Chai said the contact tracing function of MySejahtera application is no longer as effective now as during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said in a statement Wednesday that it is now time to consider discontinuing MySejahtera’s scanning feature as the nation is transitioning to the endemic phase from April 1.

“With the large numbers of positive cases within and surrounding us, contact tracing will not be adopted on a wide scale as it will not yield the expected results.”

Koh said the government can put the app to better use by converting it to a database of users’ health records.

“What is lacking in our healthcare structure is a centralized management system of the population’s health records… which can be carried by each individual to allow for access by healthcare providers as and when needed.”

MySejahtera can be put to better use by converting it to a database of users’ health records.

Meanwhile, DAP’s Member of Parliament for Kepong Lim Lip Eng urged the government to discontinue the MySejahtera app as we begin to transition to the endemic phase from this Friday.

He said in a statement that the app’s tracking feature must be discontinued, as temperature-taking earlier on, as it infringes on the general public’s privacy.

Now that the country is prepared to transition to the endemic phase and reopen our national borders, there is no more justification to continue tracking and monitoring Malaysians’ movements through MySejahtera, he asserted.

In the meantime, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has said his ministry would need one month’s time to evaluate the situation before deciding whether MySejahtera scanning is no longer necessary.