The applications were those received in the first week of operations of the ministry’s new portal which went live on Sept 21.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the portal will be fully utilised from October, and applications would be processed within three days. The system was established to streamline the application process for citizens and foreigners to prepare for the potential increase in international arrivals.

A total of 5,947 individual travellers submitted applications. Of these, the ministry was able to process 1,741 requests and approved 1,612.

Roughly two thirds of applicants were Malaysian citizens, with the remainder made up of non-citizens (32.1%) and permanent residents (2%).

“The online application system is still in a transitional phase, and it is expected that this portal will be fully utilised from October. (The ministry) targets more applications to be completed in less than three days after this,” Noor Hisham said.

He added that the system would be continuously upgraded and reminded arrivals to abide by quarantine SOPs to mitigate the transmission of Covid-19 and prevent the spread of new variants.

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