Lockdown EffEct on caRbon monoxidE concEntRation ovER maLaySia and indonESia

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019, which is known as COVID-19, is a highly spreadable disease which was first discovered around December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic as the novel coronavirus continues to spread worldwide extremely fast. Globally, up to 24 April 2021, there had been 145,216,414 confirmed cases and 3,079,390 deaths reported (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021). Malaysia, Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries had enforced lockdown at different degrees to control the spread of the disease as did many other countries around the world too. Almost all mass transportation, economic activities and social activities were prohibited by this nationwide lockdown policies as many countries had been forced to keep their citizens safe at home. Owing to the movement limitation, there had been less vehicles on the roads, many cancelled flights and restricted industrial activities which led to decreasing levels of air pollutants in the environment. As a result of this lockdown effect, there has been a benefit on human health upon reduced air pollution. Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the air pollutants that needs to be monitored at Wan Farahiyah Wan KaMaRUDIn1 Zildawarni IRWan1 Mohd Rabani YaaFaR2 abd Rahman MaT aMIn1 1Universiti Teknologi MARA, Faculty of Applied Science, Terengganu, Malaysia 2 Universiti Teknologi MARA, Faculty of Applied Science, Perak, Malaysia