PETALING JAYA: Home quarantine was approved for one third of travellers into Malaysia who had applied via the new Home Quarantine Application portal.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said it had approved 1,612 of the 4,883 complete applications it received on the portal.
So far 1,741 applications have been processed via the portal that went live on Sept 21.
Of the 5,947 individuals who submitted applications, 3,921 were Malaysians, followed by 1,910 non-citizens and 116 permanent residents.
Dr Noor Hisham said the online application system was still in the trial stage and applications via the portal would be fully implemented from October.
“We target more applications to be processed in less than three days after this. The system will be improved from time to time, and we would like to thank everyone for their cooperation and suggestions,” he said yesterday.
He advised those who had been given the go-ahead for home quarantine to adhere to the standard operating procedure and to be at home to reduce the risk of Covid-19 being spread to their family and community.
“This is very important to prevent the spread of new variants, especially Variants of Concern or Variants of Interest, into the country.
“Let us all work together to make the process of reopening safely a success,” he said.
Travellers have to submit their application between seven and 10 days before their date of arrival in Malaysia.
Malaysia recorded 11,332 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, with the country’s cumulative total now at 2,220,526. Four states reported four-digit case increases: Sarawak with 2,358 new infections, Johor (1,319), Selangor (1,231) and Kelantan (1,088).
Of the new cases reported, 247 or 2.2% of them were in Categories 3-5, while 97.8% were in Categories 1 and 2 (asymptomatic and mild symptoms).
There were 986 patients in intensive care, with 574 of them requiring ventilation support.
There were also 15 new clusters identified, with nine of them linked to the community and six linked to workplaces.