COVID Was Opportunity to Experiment with Nationwide Digital Surveillance: World Governments Summit

by Tim Hinchcliffe | The Sociable

Public health ministers tell the World Governments Summit that COVID-19 was an opportunity that allowed their countries to experiment with nationwide digital surveillance tools like contact tracing and vaccine passports.

Last week, the World Governments Summit in Dubai, UAE held panel called “Global Healthcare: From Vision to Reality,” with the health ministers from Brunei, Madagascar, Seychelles, and the Maldives, along with the president of the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences in the UAE.

Brunei’s Minister of Health Dr. Haji Mohammad Isham bin Haji Jaafar, said that his country’s digital health transformation began 11 years ago, but it was difficult to justify the continued spending until COVID-19 came around, which they used as an opportunity to introduce a contact tracing and vaccination QR code to “control the movement of the people.”

Madagascar’s Minister of Public Health Zely Randriamanantany said that COVID was an “occasion to experiment with digital surveillance” leading to “nationwide surveillance” and that pandemic was the catalyst to digitalize the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

And Seychelles Minister of Health Peggy Vidot said that “the pandemic was a dress rehearsal for the climate crisis we currently face.”

Here’s what they had to say in more detail, starting with Dr. Jaafar from the absolute monarchy-ruled government of Brunei Darussalam.

“It’s very difficult to convince our colleague from the Ministry of Finance to say whatever money we put in this [digital health] investment, and Alhamdulillah [praise be to Allah], good or not, COVID-19 happens […] We take this opportunity to install this program called ‘BruHealth’ where we control the movement of the people using the QR code, so we can do contact tracing and vaccination program“

Brunei Minister of Health Dr. Haji Mohammad Isham bin Haji Jaafar, World Governments Summit, 2025

Alhamdulillah [praise be to Allah] good or not COVID happens. We take this opportunity to install QR code for contact tracing, vaccination. How do we move forward with the advantage that almost everyone uses this app to move around? Brunei Health Minister #WGS25 #WorldGovSummit pic.twitter.com/1VPky9aaDc

— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) February 18, 2025

“How de we move forward with the advantage that we have where people, almost everyone, uses this app to move around? We take this opportunity to make this contract tracing become almost like your personal assistant to health”

Brunei Minister of Health Dr. Haji Mohammad Isham bin Haji Jaafar, World Governments Summit, 2025

“COVID-19 has leapfrogged many countries towards digitalization of their healthcare, and Brunei is blessed in such a way that for more than 11 years now we have digitalized our health information system,” said Brunei’s health minister.

“To move further it’s very difficult to convince our colleague from the Ministry of Finance to say whatever money we put in this investment, and Alhamdulillah [praise be to Allah], good or not, COVID-19 happens!

“With Brunei’s small population we are limited with human capacity, so how do we control the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the movement of people is still going on, but yet we are able to control the pandemic.

“So, we envisage by having this digital health information on the phone — almost everyone in Brunei has a phone, whether you are a 60-year-old grandmother or five-year-old — so, we take this opportunity to install this program called ‘BruHealth’ where we control the movement of the people using the QR code, so we can do contact tracing and vaccination program as well,” Dr. Jaafar added. Read Full Article >