Izah Azahari
The government is implementing more measures to ease the high volume of calls to helplines, including another BruHealth update and using pre-logged messages to answer frequently asked questions, said Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah during yesterday’s daily press conference.
Only 15 to 20 per cent of calls have been answered on Darussalam Line 123 due to the high volume of incoming queries, said the minister, adding that Darussalam Line 123 (TD123) has been receiving an average of 7,000 to 10,000 calls since the government announced the use of antigen rapid tests (ART) for detecting COVID-19 cases.
“Most calls are related to colour coding issues of the BruHealth application, inquiries about health protocols and food ration-related matters for positive cases and close contacts,” said the minister.
To address this situation, the minister said the government in a whole-of-government approach will implement an update to the BruHealth application which will allow positive cases or close contacts to make a choice as to whether they need food rations or not. This would also hopefully ease the burden on food delivery logistics, he added.
The minister said they are collaborating with Comquest Sdn Bhd to introduce pre-logged messages to TD123 for frequently asked questions, and increase the number of staff at the call centre so calls will be answered promptly.
He said the government will also look to enhance the dissemination of important information, such as the latest health protocols and details on food rations, to ease the number of queries made to the hotline.
