COVID-19 AND VACCINATION IN MALAYSIA.
AUSTRALIAN MATRICULATION, METHODIST COLLEGE KUALA LUMPUR
Name(s) and Student ID Number(s):
NURISSA BINTI DANIEL OW YANG (28275)
PRITIKA VIJAYANTHRAN (28140)
LEISHA J ROHAN (28204)
ISAAC KONG ZHI XIAN (28157)
NAME OF LECTURER: MR TAN MASON
COURSE: SERVICE LEARNING
COURSE CODE: SER1000
ASSIGNMENT TITTLE: IMPACT REPORT (GROUP ASSIGNMENT)
1. General introduction
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by infection with the severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus strain. It was first
isolated in December 2019 from three people with pneumonia connected to the
cluster of acute respiratory illness cases in Wuhan, China. However, with regard to
Malaysia, the first three COVID-19 cases were detected on 25th January 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest communicable disease outbreak to have
hit Malaysia in over one hundred years. The first wave of infections occurred from
25th January 2020 to 15th February 2020 and consisted of 22 cases. The first
nationwide lockdown of two weeks also known as Movement Control Order
(MCO) was announced on 16th March 2020, which came into effect on 18th
March 2020. However, COVID-19 is still at large with Malaysia hitting a total of
approximately 2.3 million cases as of 26th October 2021.
The best approach to achieving herd immunity in Malaysia is through vaccination.
Access to safe and effective vaccines is critical towards the process of ending the
pandemic (World Health Organization). Vaccination started in Malaysia in
February 2020, beginning with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. A national
vaccination campaign known as the National COVID-19 Immunisation
Programme was also launched by the Malaysian government with the aim of
curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
2. Background to the context
The first three cases of Covid 19 in Malaysia were imported cases that were confirmed on
January 25th. By February 15th, the number of cases in Malaysia increased to 22. Most of
the cases in the first wave were imported cases or of Chinese nationality, 15 out of 22 cases,
while only two cases were of local transmission. After the 22nd case was reported, no new
case was reported for the next 11 days. This meant that the first wave of Covid 19 in the
country was formed, and all the first wave recovered from the infection. The second wave
of outbreak started from February 27 as new cases began to appear due to people having
international travel history to countries such as China, Japan, Italy and Australia started to
develop symptoms. Clusters of cases began to form from the close contacts of confirmed
cases who attended meetings and events together. This generated several generations of
infections and the number of cases reached a total of 129 on March 10th. Furthermore, the
largest cluster of Covid 19 is known as the “Sri Petaling Tabligh Cluster”. The cluster was
from an event/convention held at Masjid Jamek in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur from February
27 to March 3 2020. The event was attended by roughly 14,500 Malaysians and 1,500
attendees from overseas who had later returned to their countries across Asia. The Ministry
of Health Malaysia immediately urged all tabligh attendees to contact the local district
health offices for screening and risk assessment. On March 15th, the number of daily cases
jumped from 41 to 190 cases from across all states, most of them linked to the Sri Petaling
Tabligh cluster. As the number of new cases continued to exceed 100, and totalling 553
cases the next day, the MOH Malaysia announced the country to be in the late containment
phase of Covid 19. Later, it was announced that the Movement Control Order (MCO) was
commencing on March 18th to contain the virus through the social distancing strategy. On
March 19th, Malaysia recorded a total of 900 cases, which ranked Malaysia as the country
with the fourth highest number of cases in Asia and the first in Southeast Asia. On July 8th,
the Sri Petaling Cluster came to an end, with the last case being reported on June 11th. This
cluster represented 38.9 percent of the total positive cases in Malaysia at the time. The
third wave started in early October after lowering to a record of single and double digit
number of cases from July to September 2020. The most significant number of cases were
coming from Sabah where several large clusters of cases had been identified. Additionally,
the movement control order was put in place when the number of Covid 19 cases started to
escalate during the second wave. The first phase of MCO was first initiated for 2 weeks from
March 18th to the 31st of 2020. This was then extended for another 2 weeks into the phase
2 of the MCO from April 1st to the 14th. This was then extended for another 2 weeks into
the 3rd phase from April 15th to the 28th and another 2 weeks into the 4th phase from April
29th to May 12th. The MCO was intended to be an 8 week lockdown but was then
converted to a conditional MCO called the CMCO, in regards to the partial opening of the
economic sector as announced by the prime minister on May 1st 2020. Lastly, the
vaccinations were made available in 3 phases. The first phase was for frontliners and it took
place from the 26th of February to April. The second phase was for high risk groups and was
available from April to August and the 3rd phase was for adults and anyone aged 12 and
above. This phase is from May to February 2022
3. Objective
The aim of this project is to spread information and educate the Malaysian citizens
about the COVID-19 vaccine. This is in hopes of improving citizens views and
opinions about the vaccine and encouraging more citizens to get vaccinated. This
will hopefully in turn , result in herd immunity of Malaysia as well as the end of
the pandemic.
4. Methodology
General Characteristics of the Project
The project: “Spreading Awareness on Vaccination to the Community” was implemented in
(4) phases:
Phase I. Preparation and spreading of questionnaire
We began our project by making a questionnaire to ask the public about their opinion on
vaccination in Malaysia. We did so by using Google Forms and spreading the questionnaire
through our own Instagram and WhatsApp accounts. Our aim was to spread the
questionnaires as wide as possible to reach as many people as possible. Our primary target is
the residents in Malaysia. We managed to get a decent number of participants to complete our
questionnaire in a span of a month and we kept the online questionnaires active to get more
input from people living in Malaysia.
Phase II. Interviewing professionals to answer participants doubts and questions and people
relevant to our video.
We interviewed a few professionals to ask them questions and doubts posted by the
participants in our questionnaire. We also interviewed some people relevant to make our
video as informative and non-biased as possible. We contacted them through online and
conducted the interview online through Zoom platform as physical interviews are not
possible. Some of our contacts on the people interviewed are found by us and some are
provided by our advisor and lecturer. Throughout the interview, things went smoothly and the
interviewees provided as much information and opinion they have as possible.
Phase III. Making of the video.
The video was made mainly by compiling the interview videos we have recorded and by
doing voiceovers. We highlighted the problems and issues faced by Malaysians during the
COVID-19 pandemic and problems faced by the participants of our questionnaires. We kept
some interviewee’s identity private as asked by them and not intrude on their rights. The
voiceovers are done by the members of our group and inserted into the video.
Phase IV. Spreading of video and evaluating the impact of experience.
The video was posted to YouTube and shared to the public by the members of our group by
posting the YouTube on WhatsApp and Instagram stories. The video gained a decent number
of views and we had positive comments by people who had watched the video. By
conducting the project, we realised that there are many problems faced by residents living in
Malaysia during the pandemic and many aren’t enlightened to the facts and opinion of others
on vaccinations in Malaysia. Overall, we are glad that we are able to impact the community
and help them throughout these tough times faced by Malaysians around.
5. Participants
Our participants were people we sent a google form to. Some of the questions we included were
whether they wanted to take the Covid 19 vaccine, if they think it should be compulsory to take
the vaccine in Malaysia, and if they didn’t want to take the vaccine, why they didn’t want to. At
the end of the form, we included a question box that allowed the participants to include any
questions they wanted to ask a professional about the Covid 19 vaccine.
6. Questionnaires
(Google Forms)
A total of 136 people participated in answering our questionnaire. Most participants are
around the 10-20 age group with a few from the 21-30, 41-50 and above 50 age groups.
However, there are none from the 31-40 age groups who participated in answering the
questionnaires. Most of the participants are female which include 92 participants with 31
males and 6 who prefer not to say and 6 others.
The responses:
Majority of the participants had taken vaccines before and wanted to take the COVID-19
vaccine. However, there are a few who answered “no” and some who stated “not sure” and
“maybe”. Most participants who answered “no” to Question 5 stated in Question 5 that there
are not enough known facts and 1 with distance and timing issues. Most participants would
like to choose the producer of the vaccines and about 43 participants stated that it does not
matter with 5 “no” and 9 “not sure”. Finally, in Question 8 most participants agree that
COVID-19 vaccine should be made compulsory in Malaysia with only 17 participants who
disagreed.
8. Results
Our team believes that the video is a success and will have an impact on those watching.
Our team published the video on the 21st of October 2021 and the video has gained 60
views in under two weeks. We believe that in the long run it can gain more views and
encourage people to get vaccinated and increase peoples’ awareness on covid-19 and the
importance of vaccination. A person had commented that the video is informative.
9. Analysis and Discussion
The video touches on the covid-19 pandemic globally and in Malaysia along with the
importance of vaccination and mental health during a pandemic. The making of the video
has raised awareness to my team and others who has watched the video. This is because,
through the interviews our team had done we too managed to learn something new about
the pandemic here in Malaysia and more on the vaccine and the importance of vaccination.
Moreover, our video has gained 60 views less than a span of 2 weeks and we hope that it
has and continues to have a significant impact on those watching. The video is helpful to
clear up any confusions anyone may have about the virus or the vaccination. Therefore, if
everyone can get the right information and is well-informed about the pandemic and the
vaccination, everyone can live a safer and better live together. There is a slogan called “kita
jaga kita” and “lindung diri, lindung semua”. We believe that no one is alone in this
pandemic and that we are all fighting the virus together. Therefore, it is important to always
get the right information to avoid being misled so that everyone can work together to end
the pandemic. As for the second slogan, we believe that in this pandemic no one is safe until
everyone else is safe.
10. Conclusion
In conclusion, since the video went public on Youtube on 22 nd October 2021 it has gained views.
The video was gained a positive response from the community. The research done for this video by
the group members gave us more insight into the immunization program and the COVID-19
pandemic as whole in Malaysia. It was a very eye-opening experience for us as group members as
well as viewers of the video as it provided insight into the COVID-19 situation here. Through this
video, we were able to educate viewers and spread information that will hopefully encourage more
citizens to get vaccinated. This project can play a small role in the long process towards achieving
herd immunity in Malaysia. Based on the feedback received from the video, this project can be
deemed a success.
