METHODS: This study was carried out through a desk review of the secondary source of information covering the impact of COVID-19 in Malaysia particularly in the agri-food aspect, and a wide range of strategies and initiatives as the effective measures to overcome the crisis of this pandemic. Online desk research of the government published data and customer desk research were utilized to complete this study. Search engines such as Google Scholar and the statistical data from the official websites including the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) and the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Region (FFTC-AP), were utilized. Keywords such as impact of COVID-19, pandemic, and agri-food supply chain were used to conduct the searches. The articles identified to be related to the study's objective were then downloaded and included in the study. Descriptive methods were used as the primary analysis technique following the descriptive analysis and visual data analysis in performing the sources obtained.
RESULTS: This devastating impact damages the lives by causing 4.3 million confirmed infections and more than 290,000 deaths. This disease presents an unprecedented challenge to the public health. The lockdown restriction under the movement control order (MCO), for more than of the world's population in the year 2020 to control the virus from spreading, has disrupted most of the economic sectors. The agriculture industry was seen as one of the essential industries and allowed to operate under strict standard operating procedures (SOP). Working under strict regulations came with a huge price paid for almost all industries.
CONCLUSION: This pandemic has affected the national agri-food availability and accessibility in Malaysia. This outbreak created a reflection of opportunity for sharing a more flexible approaches in handling emergencies on agricultural food production and supply chains. Therefore, the government should be ready with the roadmap and enforce the measures to control the pandemic without disrupting the agri-food supply chain in the near future.
PURPOSE: The authors explored the training practices of football players worldwide during the COVID-19 lockdown.
METHODS: Football players (N = 2482, 30% professional, 22% semipro, and 48% amateur) completed an online survey (May-July 2020) on their training practices before versus during lockdown (March-June 2020). Questions were related to training frequency and session duration, as well as training knowledge and attitudes.
RESULTS: Before lockdown, more professional (87%) than semipro (67%) and amateur (65%) players trained ≥5 sessions/wk, but this proportion decreased during the lockdown to 55%, 35%, and 42%, respectively. Players (80%-87%) trained ≥60 minutes before lockdown, but this proportion decreased to 45% in professionals, 43% in amateurs, and 36% in semipros during lockdown. At home, more than two-thirds of players had training space (73%) and equipment (66%) for cardiorespiratory training, while availability of equipment for technical and strength training was <50% during lockdown. Interactions between coach/trainer and player were more frequent (ie, daily) among professional (27%) than amateur (11%) and semipro (17%) players. Training load monitoring, albeit limited, was mostly performed by fitness coaches, more so with professionals (35%) than amateurs (13%) and semipros (17%). The players' training knowledge and attitudes/beliefs toward training were relatively modest (50%-59%).
CONCLUSION: COVID-19 lockdown negatively affected training practices of football players worldwide, especially amateurs and semipros, for example, in training frequency, duration, intensity, technical, recovery, and other fitness training and coaching-related aspects. During lockdown-like situations, players should be monitored closely and provided appropriate support to facilitate their training.
RECENT FINDINGS: The COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns, social distancing, supply chain disruptions, and transport restrictions affect seafood production, distribution, marketing, and consumption. Recommendations are suggested to overcome these challenges. The COVID-19 has led to disruption of aquaculture practices worldwide. The pandemic has adversely affected the aquaculture input supply of fish stocking and feeding, which, in turn, has impacted aquaculture production. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis has had adverse effects on value addition to aquaculture products, through the restrictions of seafood marketing and exporting. Aquatic food production is vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 outbreak; hence, adaptation strategies must be developed to cope with the challenges. There is an urgent need for collaboration among key stakeholders to rebuild the supply chain of inputs and fish marketing for sustainable aquaculture practices. International agencies, donors, government and non-governmental organizations, researchers, and policymakers need to develop policies to support aquaculture production and supply chains.
METHODS: A validated instrument was used to interview 399 randomly selected respondents from the public (n = 202, 50.6%) and scientists (n = 197, 49.4%) in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia. The data were analysed using PLS-SEM involving Smart-PLS software.
RESULTS: The results confirmed that stakeholder attitudes toward fogging should be viewed in terms of a multi-dimensional association. The stakeholders surveyed were highly positive with regard to the application of fogging to control dengue but professed moderate concerns as to associated risks. The PLS-SEM analyses demonstrated that the perceived benefit was the most important factor influencing attitudes, followed by trust in key players.
CONCLUSIONS: This result provides a good insight from the perspective of education and unravels the underlying fundamentals of stakeholders' attitudes toward the fogging technique. The findings also provide a positive indicator to the responsible parties involved to continue the usage of this technique in conjunction with improvements with regard to its safety aspects, and possibly in combination with other environmental-friendly alternatives in order to achieve a healthy environment without dengue in Malaysia.
METHODS: We downloaded COVID-19 outbreak data of the number of confirmed cases in all countries as of October 19, 2020. The IRT-based predictive model was built to determine the pandemic IP for each country. A model building scheme was demonstrated to fit the number of cumulative infected cases. Model parameters were estimated using the Solver add-in tool in Microsoft Excel. The absolute advantage coefficient (AAC) was computed to track the IP at the minimum of incremental points on a given ogive curve. The time-to-event analysis (a.k.a. survival analysis) was performed to compare the difference in IPs among continents using the area under the curve (AUC) and the respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). An online comparative dashboard was created on Google Maps to present the epidemic prediction for each country.
RESULTS: The top 3 countries that were hit severely by COVID-19 were France, Malaysia, and Nepal, with IP days at 263, 262, and 262, respectively. The top 3 continents that were hit most based on IP days were Europe, South America, and North America, with their AUCs and 95% CIs at 0.73 (0.61-0.86), 0.58 (0.31-0.84), and 0.54 (0.44-0.64), respectively. An online time-event result was demonstrated and shown on Google Maps, comparing the IP probabilities across continents.
CONCLUSION: An IRT modeling scheme fitting the epidemic data was used to predict the length of IP days. Europe, particularly France, was hit seriously by COVID-19 based on the IP days. The IRT model incorporated with AAC is recommended to determine the pandemic IP.