REGISTRATION of organ donations can be made through the MySejahtera app from September 6, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. 

He said Malaysia was among the 10 countries with the lowest transplant rate in the world for 2021 at only 2.84 organ transplants per million people according to the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation. 

“When people make a pledge via MySejahtera, the information directly reaches the National Transplant Resource Centre. If there is any death in the hospitals and there is eligibility for organ donation, it will come out in the system,” he said at a press conference after closing the national-level Organ Donation Awareness Week today. 

Khairy added that the number of patients who were still waiting to get an organ donation locally as of today was 10,442. 

He said only 2,700 transplant cases involving organ donations had been carried out since 1975. 

“Based on the latest organ donation statistics from the National Transplant Resource Centre in July 2022, it shows that there have been 779 organ donors since 1997. The number of organ donor pledges now stands at 517,758 since 1997,” he said. 

Commenting on the wearing of face masks, Khairy said he would make an announcement regarding the new regulations on face masks this Wednesday. 

He said the Public Health Executive Committee that he chaired had received recommendations from experts on the use of face masks and the Ministry of Health (MOH) was still in the process of gathering the public’s views on the matter. 

He added that there were three criteria needed by the MOH before the country could announce a move to the endemic phase, including a declaration from the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

In addition, Khairy said the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) was still applicable until the end of December this year, and all areas in the country were declared areas of infectious diseases. – Bernama, September 4, 2022.