PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry (MOH) will set up physical helpdesks in selected locations to help resolve technical issues involving the Mysejahtera application, said its minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said the first physical helpdesk will begin operating at the vaccination centre in World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur this Saturday and Ideal Convention Centre, Shah Alam on Feb 26.

"Those who have problems with their vaccination certificates and others can visit the physical helpdesk to solve their problems.

"Our virtual helpdesk continues but I have been receiving complaints that some people have waited so long for their vaccination certificates and other issues but are yet to be resolved," he told a press conference on COVID-19 here today.

He said the ministry would expand the physical helpdesk facility to other states in the near future and the matter would be announced from time to time.

In the meantime, Khairy said an announcement on the isolation protocol for close contacts will be made next week.

He said this was in line with the protocol practised by health workers under the MOH whereby close contacts with no symptoms are not required to undergo quarantine but only need to do the COVID-19 self-test on certain days.

The minister added that a circular had been issued to public healthcare workers by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah last Tuesday (Feb 15).

"We may use the same protocol when we feel that we can do it for the general public.

"Close contacts are very frequent now because the number of cases is increasing and when this happens, disruptions to the economy, employment management and so on are very significant," he said.

Meanwhile, Khairy said starting tomorrow, the ministry will no longer announce the daily new COVID-19 cases in the evening, but at 10 am on the following day with other data such as hospital admissions and deaths.

"This is so that we can read the daily case data with other data like admission to hospitals to reduce the fear factor of the daily cases and to slowly educate the community to look at other figures as well that give a better picture on the real situation," he said.

-- BERNAMA