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Review
. 2020 Dec;13(12):1823-1829.
doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2020.08.007. Epub 2020 Aug 29.

Malaysia's approach in handling COVID-19 onslaught: Report on the Movement Control Order (MCO) and targeted screening to reduce community infection rate and impact on public health and economy

Noor Azah Aziz  1 , Jamal Othman  2 , Halyna Lugova  3 , Adlina Suleiman  4
Affiliations
Review

Malaysia's approach in handling COVID-19 onslaught: Report on the Movement Control Order (MCO) and targeted screening to reduce community infection rate and impact on public health and economy

Noor Azah Aziz et al. J Infect Public Health. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Malaysia recorded its first case of COVID-19 on January 24th, 2020 with a stable number of reported cases until March 2020, where there was an exponential spike due to a massive religious gathering in Kuala Lumpur. This caused Malaysia to be the hardest hit COVID-19 country in South East Asia at the time. In order to curb the transmission and better managed the clusters, Malaysia imposed the Movement Control Order (MCO) which is now in its fourth phase. The MCO together with targeted screening have slowed the spread of COVID-19 epidemic. The government has also provided three economic stimulus packages in order to cushion the impact of the shrinking economy. Nonetheless, early studies have shown that the MCO would greatly affect the lower and medium income groups, together with small and medium businesses.

Keywords: COVID-19; Economic impact; Malaysia; Movement Control Order.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
State of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia demonstrating initial clusters and trajectory projection overtime.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
State of COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia demonstrating comparison of recovery rate between Malaysia and South Korea.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Malaysia's performance in managing COVID-19 in terms of comparison with South Korea as benchmarking (reported as cases per 10,000 population).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Distribution of cumulative and active cases of COVID-19 infection in Malaysia during the period of MCO and CMCO.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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