THE use of GitHub and the CovidNow website to present updates on Covid-19 infections, deaths, hospitalisation and vaccination is a new level of transparency for the Health Ministry (MOH), its disease control division senior principal assistant director-general Dr Maheshwara Rao Appannan said.

The two platforms are freely accessible to the public and all of the ministry’s data are displayed.

“The biggest challenge in coming up with GitHub or CovidNow is that it is a break from the ministry’s norm in terms of data transparency,” he said in a Zoom session with the media today.

“But we had enablers from the top levels of MOH, from the director-general, the deputy director-general and the minister. This was our biggest challenge (not getting their approval) but here we are now.”

On September 11, MOH launched CovidNow, a website aimed at providing more detailed information on Malaysia’s Covid-19 trend and figures, and is aimed at increasing transparency in data sharing.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin described the website as an effort to “lift the veil of secrecy in statistics”.

The ministry had been criticised previously for not sharing granular data on Covid-19, especially by the Selangor government that ran a few of its own initiatives to fight the epidemic.

Khairy had also said the move was in line with MOH’s aspiration to have data and information regarding Covid-19 accessible to all.

The website was built pro bono by four Malaysian youths, website developers Henry Lim, Calum Lim, Lim Sheng Han and Roshen Maghan. The four were also in the Zoom session with the media today.

“In the spirit of collaboration and the whole government and whole-of-society approach, we asked the four of them if they wanted to come on board,”  Maheswara said.

Sheng Han, a data scientist by profession, said he had been looking for a way to contribute his skills to fight the outbreak. In July this year, the government made the Covid-19 data sets available on GitHub, an open source platform.

“The open data community was very impressed with the use of GitHub as it is a sign of transparency. Every single data point is uploaded there and any changes can be tracked.

“From our point of view, this is an unprecedented move by the MOH and Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre,” he said.

Meanwhile, Henry said he did not think the government would ever be open to sharing data transparently.

“When I found all the data was on GitHub I was happy. I didn’t think the government would do something like this,” he said, adding that he had initially wanted to build his own website to present Covid-19 data before being approached by MOH.

Roshen, who is a software developer for Bank Negara, said that the four of them had no money to contribute and so they contributed their skills.

“The government has done its part in terms of transparency, time for developers like us to play our part to keep the nation informed.” – October 5, 2021.