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Air quality status during 2020 Malaysia Movement Control Order (MCO) due to 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic

Abdullah S 1 , Mansor AA 2 , Napi NNLM 3 , Mansor WNW 3 , Ahmed AN 4 , Ismail M 5 Show all authors , Ramly ZTA 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 Air Quality and Environment Research Group, Faculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia. Electronic address: samsuri@umt.edu.my
  • 2 Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
  • 3 Air Quality and Environment Research Group, Faculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
  • 4 Faculty of Engineering, University Tenaga Nasional, Bangi 43650, Malaysia; Institute of Engineering Infrastructures, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Bangi 43650, Malaysia
  • 5 Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia; Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
  • 6 Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia; Enviro Excel Tech Sdn Bhd., A-G-09, Univ 360 Places, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
Sci Total Environ, 2020 Aug 10;729:139022.
PMID: 32353722 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139022

Abstract

An outbreak of respiratory illness which is proven to be infected by a 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) officially named as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in Wuhan, China and has spread rapidly in other parts of China as well as other countries around the world, including Malaysia. The first case in Malaysia was identified on 25 January 2020 and the number of cases continue to rise since March 2020. Therefore, 2020 Malaysia Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented with the aim to isolate the source of the COVID-19 outbreak. As a result, there were fewer number of motor vehicles on the road and the operation of industries was suspended, ergo reducing emissions of hazardous air pollutants in the atmosphere. We had acquired the Air Pollutant Index (API) data from the Department of Environment Malaysia on hourly basis before and during the MCO with the aim to track the changes of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at 68 air quality monitoring stations. It was found that the PM2.5 concentrations showed a high reduction of up to 58.4% during the MCO. Several red zone areas (>41 confirmed COVID-19 cases) had also reduced of up to 28.3% in the PM2.5 concentrations variation. The reduction did not solely depend on MCO, thus the researchers suggest a further study considering the influencing factors that need to be adhered to in the future.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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