SINGAPORE: A civil servant has been arrested for allegedly leaking COVID-19 case figures before they were officially released, according to a police news release on Thursday (Apr 23).
The 35-year-old Singaporean woman has been arrested for wrongful communication of information under the Official Secrets Act and unauthorised access to computer materials under the Computer Misuse Act.
AdvertisementAdvertisementShe is also accused of accessing a Government COVID-19 database without authorisation to retrieve confidential records of a person who had tested positive for COVID-19, and giving the information to a friend, said the police.
On Apr 16 at about 7.40pm, the police received a report from a member of the public that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases for that day had been published on an Instagram story post, even though the Ministry of Health (MOH) had not officially released the figures yet.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman, who is an authorised recipient of classified information on COVID-19, had shared the figures with members of a private WeChat group, said the police.
"Members in the WeChat group, who were not authorised to receive the classified information, further disseminated the information before MOH officially released the information," they said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementFurther investigations found that the woman had previously shared daily COVID-19 case figures with the group before the figures were officially released on several other occasions.
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