James Kon
The ART feature on the BruHealth application was activated on Friday, recording over 3,000 antigen rapid test (ART) results from COVID-19 cases and close contacts on the very first day.
The newly-introduced ART feature replaces the previously used ARTreport website.
With the automated system, the public will no longer experience a delay in the change of BruHealth colour codes – from purple to green or red to green – after completing quarantine.
Details of the new ART feature were revealed at the Saturday press conference at the Ministry of Health (MoH), chaired by Medical Officer at the MoH Pengiran Dr Muhammad Ali bin Pengiran Anak Rosledzana and Head of Programme (Health Management), EVYD Technology Adj Asst/Prof (Dr) Lim Hong Shen.
“Previously, when the number of cases was at a low, it could be manually done. However, when the numbers are in the range of thousands, we would want the system to take over to carry out the task efficiently and in a timely manner,” Adjunct Assistant/Professor (Dr) Lim Hong Shen.
“We are achieving new real time efficiency in term of conversion of BruHealth colour code. Right now, the conversion of purple to green code will only take 10 minutes. This is an issue that we will continue to refine,” he said.
The standard operating procedure (SOP) for positive cases is a 10-day quarantine at most, Pengiran Dr Muhammad Ali said, adding that “should a patient test negative on the fifth day, he can then be discharged should the ART result remain negative the following day (on the sixth day). However, should the ART result return positive on the sixth day, he will be required to continue the quarantine period until Day 10, and be discharged on Day 11”.
Should the art result return positive on the fifth day, the patient needs to perform a second ART test on the seventh day of quarantine. If the result is negative, he can be discharged. However, if the result is positive, he will have to continue the quarantine period until Day 10, and be discharged on Day 11.
“We will conduct sampling to check on the ART result to ensure the result is similar to what the picture is picking up,” Pengiran Dr Muhammad Ali said.
With over 3,000 ART results uploaded by confirmed cases, he said, “We are convinced the people have migrated to the new system and will continue to report their results on the platform.”
On uploading the result, Lim said, “We need the individual to upload the ART results together with a mobile phone, watch or even the date on a newspaper. The system also allows the phone owner to help report the ART results of family members. However, family members need to be added into BruHealth to be able do this.”
With regards to confirmed cases logged on to the now defunct portal, he said, “We are patching the correct dates that they were diagnosed as COVID-positive. We will automatically assign the date to each case so that there will be no delay in discharge.”
Members of the public are reminded to provide daily update of their health status on the BruHealth app.
He added, “Individuals will be tracked for logging in their symptoms at the back end of the system. For patients who have not logged in their symptoms, the team can follow up with the necessary measures.”