AS at February 21, 2021, only about 10.45 million or 35% of 32.7 million Malaysians have completed the Population and Housing Census 2020 (Census 2020), said Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) chief statistician Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

He said although the online method or e-Census was still open, there were many who had yet to do so.

“The census system this time is different from the previous system which only took about four weeks to complete.

“We request cooperation from the public to participate in the exercise. For those who want to do it without the face-to-face meeting can continue to do so via e-Census,” he said in a question and answer session during the department’s Meet the Customer Day programme held virtually today.

The Census 2020 commenced on July 7, 2020 with the implementation of an online exercise via e-Census and computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) method.

Uzir also said that DOSM has yet to implement the Census 2020 on a large scale via face-to-face meetings due to the constraints of Covid-19.

“What is being implemented at the moment, our enumerators are being mobilised for a targeted face-to-face exercise according to the suitability and comfort of the local community.

“If people are not comfortable with the e-census system, our enumerators in the field will help them using the CATI system or we can provide questionnaires manually,” he said.

The Census 2020 was implemented in two phases, the first phase was originally scheduled from July 7 to September 30 and the second phase from October 7 to 24, last year.

However, the implementation period has been rescheduled, namely, the first phase (online) has been extended until December 21, last year and the second phase (face-to-face) from January 20 to February 6, 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. – Bernama, February 23, 2021.