Ever since the pandemic started, travelling has been restricted overseas and locally. Lockdowns have been put in place to stop the spread of the virus. More than two years, and fortunately, with the availability of vaccines, travelling across countries has been allowed with regulations. Mandatory quarantine period in designated quarantine centers is still implemented but lessened to seven days for vaccinated individuals and ten days for those not yet vaccinated.
As of September 21, 2021, the Malaysian government has allowed travellers to submit their application for home quarantine online. Previously, you can submit your application by sending an email to the Ministry of Health seven days before your arrival. Now, they have launched a portal site where you can easily apply for home quarantine. Once approved, it will automatically appear to your MySejahtera account. You can even submit up to ten individuals per application in one quarantine address.
Processing travel documents could be a bit demanding since you have to make sure all are correct and complete. However, there is no need to worry since we have gathered everything you need to know in applying for home quarantine in Malaysia, and you just have to follow the steps!
Are You Qualified for Home Quarantine?
Before sending your home quarantine application, you have to make sure you are eligible to apply first. To be qualified, you must have all three requirements:
Home or Residence
Both foreign or local travellers should have a home or residence in Malaysia that is suitable under risk evaluation. In your application, they will ask for the number of persons residing in the indicated address, number of elderly persons (ages above 60 years), children (ages below 12 years), persons with chronic illnesses, pregnant mothers, as well as the number of rooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms with en suite bathrooms. These numbers will be the basis for the risk evaluation.
There will be no problems even if travellers are citizen or non-citizen, or included under permanent residency or the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) program, as long as they have a home in the country.
PCR Test Result
Negative Covid-19 PCR test within three days prior to departure to Malaysia is another requirement. Since the application has to be submitted seven to ten days before arrival, the test may not be available at the time of application but the negative result will still be presented at the point of entry.
Proof of Vaccination
Lastly, you should be vaccinated in order to apply for home quarantine. For those who already got complete doses of a two-dose vaccine, 14 days should have passed after the second dose. And if you had a single-dose vaccine, more than 28 days should have passed in order to be eligible for home quarantine.
In the application form, it is mandatory to upload your vaccination card which should be in English or Malay language, with applicant’s details, and contains the vaccine name and dates when doses were received.
Non-vaccinated or incompletely vaccinated travellers are not allowed to home quarantine and have to spend their ten days of isolation in assigned quarantine centers.
Recommended: What to Do While in Quarantine During Covid-19?
Which Vaccines are Approved in Malaysia?
- Moderna
- Pfizer/BioNTech
- CanSino
- Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)
- Oxford/AstraZeneca
- Sinopharm
- Sinovac
How to Apply for Home Quarantine in Malaysia?
If you are completely eligible with the criteria above, you can now start your application with these simple steps!
1. Go to eCovid19 HQA
Go to the official Ministry of Health website dedicated for application of home quarantine at https://hso.moh.gov.my/outbreak-portal-hqa/index and click Apply Now on the upper right section.
2. Enter Applicant’s Details
In the first section, you will be asked to input the applicant’s details. Applicants may be travellers as well or are applying on behalf of their family or other companion.
Simply enter the applicant’s name, with the identification number or passport details. Telephone number and e-mail address will be needed as well, make sure to submit an active number and email so you can receive the Transaction Authorization Code (ATC) to complete the submission.
Lastly, you should indicate the date of arrival, although it is indicated in the site that you can submit at least four days before arrival, we would highly recommend applying at least a week before to have extra time in case the approval takes longer than expected.
3. Enter Traveller’s Details
For the next section, you will see separate boxes for up to ten travellers, where you will be asked to input their details. If you are applying on behalf of your family members or other relatives, make sure to know their details and request a copy of their documents.
Encode every traveller’s personal details such as full name, ID No. or passport, nationality, date of birth, and gender. Then, input the vaccine name, dates of the 1st and 2nd dose, if applicable, and the rest are documents for uploading.
The first attachment required is the traveller’s identification documents. Then, vaccination records, additional documents, entry approval for non-citizen, and travel documents such as flight or ferry tickets. Take note that if you are travelling from yellow fever endemic countries, you must provide a yellow fever vaccination certificate too. Although the only files mandatory to upload are the ID and the vaccination records, it is best to submit everything that is applicable to avoid any concerns or holdup in the approval of request.
4. Enter Travel Information
This section asks for the country and date of departure, type of transportation, flight details (if via air), point of entry, and date and time of arrival. If you are applying for various relatives from different points of departure, you would have to apply separately.
5. Indicate Your Quarantine Address
Simply encode your full address with postcode, state, and district. Under this section, you will be asked to declare the number of persons in the household excluding the travellers, and specific numbers of those that are high-risk persons residing in the address, as well as the numbers of rooms and bathrooms in the house.
6. Agree with Declaration and Submit Your Application
Once you have entered all required information and documents, tick the box to certify that all indicated details are true and correct. After this, you can submit your application and give some time for the MOH to finish reviewing your files and wait for a notification once they have approved your Home Quarantine Application.
What Happens During Home Quarantine?
Upon arrival, you will be asked to download MySejahtera Traveller as one of Malaysia’s ways to ensure control upon opening of the international borders. This helps to easily obtain a traveller’s complete health declaration form prior to arrival. It is where you would digitally receive the Home Surveillance Order as well which lets you do home quarantine.
You could perform daily self-assessment throughout your quarantine with the help of this application. In the MySejahtera user profile, they will send reminders for vaccinated “person under surveillance” to go for laboratory tests on their day 5, and day 8 for unvaccinated travellers. Once you have completed your seven days of home quarantine, it will appear in your user profile that you have finished your Home Surveillance Order.
Things to Take Note Before Travelling to Malaysia
Traveling during the pandemic could require a lot of documents and processes, it could be overwhelming and frustrating at times if you are not prepared. Here are some reminders you should take note of to dodge any complications upon your arrival.
- In submitting your HQA applications, apply seven to ten days before your arrival since approval is not immediate and would be processed within a week.
- Check your application status by going back to the HQA website and click the “Check Application Status” on the upper right, then enter the HQA ref no. you received after application, the passcode, and the security code.
- Before departure, do a double check for completeness of your requirements, especially your approved HQA. This will be checked at the point of entry and any missing document could hold you and may cause problems.
- Once approved, make sure to stick to your home quarantine. Take note that breaking home quarantine could get you fined for up to RM50,000 or six months of jail under Regulation 17 (1) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases.
Since we are still in the middle of the pandemic, it is advised to check their website for updates and changes in the regulations every once in a while since the processes can change as needed. If you have a specific situation and need more help or clarification from the MOH, you can send an email to hso@moh.gov.my.
Keep in mind that HQA applications do not assure a hundred percent of approval, so it is best to answer their form completely and honestly. After all, it is better to spend seven days in a hotel instead of putting other people’s health in danger. But by reading and following all the information above, you can be assured that you have correctly requested home quarantine and it will not be declined due to inaccuracy or lack of supporting files. Send your application now, so you can travel safely and spend more time with your loved ones!
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