KUALA LUMPUR: Only 148,516 people out of the 1.4 million who registered for interstate travel through the Gerak Malaysia app have verified their trips so far.
Federal CID director Comm Datuk Huzir Mohamed (pic, right) said a total of 1,407,143 people had downloaded and registered with the app so far.
"We have received a total of 503,276 applications so far, but only 148,516 of those applicants have verified their trips.
"We also received 13,069 manual applications through police stations nationwide," he told reporters on Wednesday (May 6).
He urged those who had sent in their applications to update their address of origin and destination immediately.
"An updated version of the app was available for download at the Google Play Store for Android, while the update for Apple platform users would be available later tonight.
"The last step applicants need to take before travel across state borders is to update the app to version 2.5 on Thursday (May 7)," he said, adding that once the app was updated, applicants must generate a QR code which would act as proof that their application had been approved.
Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Al-Ishsal Ishak, who was also present at the the press conference, gave a short demonstration on how to generate the QR code.
Comm Huzir said he had previously mentioned that app users only needed to register and update their details and no approval would be given; however, the QR code feature was later added because preliminary statistics showed that 503,276 people had applied.
"Of that number, only 29.5% (148,576) applicants had updated their details.
"This could be because of two factors, people think that they did not need to wait for approval or they were just waiting to do it at the last minute," he said adding that the QR code generation process was important to ensure no one abused interstate travel.
He said the feature also helped the Health Ministry and police trace anyone, including their close contacts, should they test positive for Covid-19.
"Those who get approval to travel to other states would be required to provide police personnel with the QR code for scanning when they are stopped at roadblocks for checks.
