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This study aimed to classify the spatiotemporal analysis of rainwater quality before and during the Movement Control Order (MCO) implementation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chemometric analysis was carried out on rainwater samples collected from 24-gauge stations throughout Malaysia to determine the samples' chemical content, pH, and conductivity. Other than that, hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were used to classify the quality of rainwater at each location into four clusters, namely good, satisfactory, moderate, and bad clusters. Note that DA was carried out on the predefined clusters. The reduction in acidity levels occurred in 11 stations (46% of overall stations) after the MCO was implemented. Chemical content and ion abundance followed a downward trend, indicating that Cl− and Na+ were the most dominant among the anions and cations. Apart from that, NH4+, Ca2+, NO3−, and SO42− concentrations were evident in areas with significant anthropogenic activity, as there was a difference in the total chemical content in rainwater when compared before and during the MCO. Based on the dataset before the MCO, 75% of gauge stations were in the good cluster, 8.3% in the satisfactory cluster, 12.5% in the moderate cluster, and 4.2% in the bad cluster. Meanwhile, the dataset during the MCO shows that 72.7% of gauge stations were in the good cluster, 9.1% in the satisfactory cluster, 9.1% in the moderate, and 4.5% in the bad cluster. From this study, the chemometric analysis of the year 2020 rainwater chemical composite dataset strongly indicates that reduction of human activities during MCO affected the quality of rainwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains." This famous phrase made by Geneva-born political philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau back in 1762 is one especially relevant in this COVID-19 era of today where individuals have severely been restricted in their movements since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. In Malaysia, applications such as MySejahtera further enable the government to track and limit the movements of citizens whilst simultaneously issuing them warnings in events of breaches to restrictions posed by the government. In light of mass protests of citizens from the likes of Austria, Australia, the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands and other liberal democracies, 2 a rather compelling question can be raised. Does the necessity of collective safety outweigh the rights of individual privacy and freedom? This is a question which has been at the forefront of the minds of governments and authorities in establishing standard operating procedures, rules and regulations for which there appears to be no concrete answer. In this text, we have approached the views from various schools of jurists in restricting the right of movements in Malaysia during the Movement Control Order (MCO), declared by the government in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A discussion is done on the necessity of tightening the basic human rights in favour of gaining collective safety in the context of jurisprudence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 and the subsequent Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed by the government has deeply impacted the higher education institutions in Malaysia. The new normal has dramaticallytransformed to online learning. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) took the bold move to be among the first universities in Malaysia to start online learning to ensure that students can continue with their education and graduation as anticipated. Whilst academics have done a remarkable job in putting together materials and assessments in preparation for online delivery of courses, the university must ensure quality and fair assessment as well as how well they have fared in the face of a major catastrophe. Accordingly, evaluations should be carried regularly, especially from the perspectives of students. The purpose of this paper is to explore the online learning experience of international undergraduate students on philosophy course. The paper adopted educational action research method by developing and distributing a questionnaire using google forms to collect data from 88 students in two international sections during the academic year 2020/2021. The results showed that although the majority of students rate their overall online experience as "excellent", however, 60% of them think that their learning outcome could have been better if the study was face to face. Regarding the teaching modes, the preferred selection of majority of students was hybrid, synchronous, and asynchronous modes respectively. Moreover, the findings indicated that that students are still coping with the new norms working from thehome, but they had dissatisfaction with certain elements such as missing the face-to-face interaction and the challenge to carry out collaborative group projects while dispersed in different places. The findings provide updated insights on online learning after being adopted as a new norm during the COVID-19 pandemic and applied in UTM ever since, as such, can be useful for the university management, educators' best practices, and similar higher education institutions to enhance and develop new online teaching and learning plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical distancing is believed to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus. With data provided by COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports from Google, this study examines the mobility patterns at different stages of Movement Control Order (MCO) and investigates whether lower mobility reduces the number of new cases, death cases, and recovery rate. This research also covers the time spent in places such as i) retail and recreation, ii) grocery and pharmacy, iii) parks, iv) transit stations, v) the workplace, and vi) residential areas. As each of these types of places has distinct epidemiological characteristics, they may spread transmission differently. This study also correlates the stock market with mobility patterns of Malaysians in order to evaluate the effectiveness of lockdowns on COVID-19 incidents and its impact on the stock market, in this case; Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI). Findings of this study highlight the effects of pandemic COVID-19 on stock market daily performance by utilizing prospect and uncertainty theory in predicting the short-term impacts of the epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WHO reported the Covid-19 outbreak infected 486,761,597 people, involving 6,142,735 deaths worldwide as of 1 April 2022. This contagious disease has spread rapidly throughout the world, including Malaysia. Since the outbreak in Malaysia began in March 2020, the Movement Control Order (MCO) has been implemented nationwide, leaving a significant impact on its citizens, non-citizens, as well as refugees. There is some exploitation of refugees, where enforcement officers are targeting them for criminal offences. Stakeholders claimed the Malaysian government did not provide any assistance to refugees during the pandemic, including health care and economy. This article examines Malaysia’s responsibilities as a host country to refugees during the Covid-19 outbreak. The Malaysian government is proposed to continuously support refugees on humanitarian grounds based on the country’s economic development capabilities. This paper will look into the current situation of the Refugees in Malaysia; discuss the challenges that the Refugees in Malaysia are facing; analyse the legal [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sporting events at international, regional and national levels have either been postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak across the globe. The sports industry has been heavily impacted and, in many ways, paralyzed by the pandemic. However, sports and recreational premises or facilities can still carry out certain operations limited to management and maintenance only; quarantine-based centralized training programs by the National Sports Council and camp-based training by state sports councils in Malaysia. The goal of this presentation is to answer questions and provide beneficial information to help increase understanding of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on sports activities. The pandemic has in a way put a certain degree of a halt to sports activities that require body contact or direct physical touch. This is what martial art is all about and most of the activities are restricted during the outbreak due to the nature of the sport itself. This paper reports the results of interviews done with those who are involved directly in the martial art sports of Taekwondo. The combination of deductive and semantic approaches of the Thematic Analysis method is used to analyze explicit opinions expressed in interviews done. The findings showed the responses of what has been anticipated by the researchers based on prior knowledge and the current situation. In addition, the suggestions given by the informants could be considered as the basis of innovative ways and strategies to alleviate the impact of Covid-19. More research could be done in future as part of the contribution to the new knowledge and solution of the everexisting hardship during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has affected the teaching and learning of the STCW courses (Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Seafarers) which witnessed the drastic move from normal faceto-face facilitation to full online and distance learning (ODL). This new paradigm shift has resulted in significant changes as well as immense challenges to students who experienced this crisis for the first time. Hence, the study aims to discover students’ motivation level in adapting to the new environment of online learning as experienced by semester 2 students in Maritime English classes via quantitative study adopted Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivation survey administered on 78 respondents. The data collected were analysed and the results showed high level of students’ motivation despite having to undergo challenges in online distance learning during the MCO. Moreover, the four elements of the ARCS Model tested in the experiment indicated very high scores in students’ engagement, confidence, motivation, and satisfaction. This preliminary study has helped to provide a new perspective on online learning as well as students’ motivation to the maritime education and training institutions. Hence, it is hoped that the findings could help them to make continuous quality improvement in pedagogical, technological adaptation and assessment aspects for the benefit of students and stakeholders of the maritime industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severity of Covid-19 outbreak caused it to be declared a pandemic and the Malaysian government had to implement movement control order (MCO). MCO includes restriction on outdoor activities and temporary shutdown of fitness centres. Sports enthusiasts among community may experience uneasy phenomenon as this order affecting their exercises routines. To some extent, it does affect them physically, mentally, and emotionally. Various efforts were made to allow these group to engage in physical exercise. One of the efforts is engaging in live virtual physical exercise (VPE) through social media or recorded videos. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the relationship between VPE and mental health status during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown situation. In this quantitative designed study, 84 participants were recruited randomly within Johor community using snowball effect strategy. DASS-21 questionnaire was used to measure mental health status and administered online for data collection. SPSS software was used for descriptive statistic and SmartPLS software was used to test the structural equation model between the variables. Findings showed significant decreases in the level of stress, anxiety, and depression after joining the VPE programme during MCO. The depression scale was significantly corelated to stress and anxiety before and after involvement with VPE programme. Overall, participants has improved mental health status by engaging with the VPE programme during the lockdown order. This study is expected to shed some light on the future of physical activities via technology and online platform, their influence towards healthy lifestyle and the mental status of the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is considered as one of the countries with the highest novel corona virus (COVID-19) infected cases in Southeast Asia. Recent studies have identified that the air quality of a region also governs the transmission of the virus through pollutants. Hence, a study was conducted to assess the influence of air quality on the COVID-19 pandemic spread in central Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. An attempt was also made to infer the effect of monsoonal precipitation on air quality. Central Peninsular Malaysia consists of major cities like Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya. These cities are highly populated, with the expansion of industrial activities, rapid urbanisation and greater usage of vehicles has resulted in air quality deterioration. Such conditions have led to related public health issues, compared to Sabah in east Malaysia. In this study, COVID-19 infected cases, air quality index (AQI) and precipitation data were collected from 25 January to August 2020 to infer the relationship of air quality to the pandemic spread before, during and after the implementation of lockdown periods in the country, referred as movement control order (MCO). The lockdown periods fall under various monsoon climate patterns in the country. Interpretation of data reveals that the variation in air quality correlates with the infected cases. Improved air quality was observed during the last phase of MCO with a lesser number of infected cases. The HYSPLIT model was adopted to study the backward air mass trajectories for different time frames to identify the variation in the sources of pollutants reaching the study area. The study determined that the air pollutants have reached the study area from various directions, reflecting a mixed contribution from the ocean and land area. The relationship between high precipitation (during inter-monsoon and SW monsoon) and improved air quality reveals the washout effect of air pollutants. The outcome of this study inferred that the variation of air quality and precipitation rates facilitate the pandemic spread in this region in addition to the other meteorological factors, apart from individual immune capacity and social distancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]