Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, Practise and Health Literacy (KAPH) Towards COVID-19 in Post-COVID-19 New Reality: The Need and Its Challenges in Malaysia.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health emerging infection globally with a terrifying impact. The rise in COVID-19 cases is still alarming, despite many preventive and control measures implemented, including the recent “promotion” of herd immunity. This emergence caused by a newly discovered coronavirus has alerted the Malaysian health system on preparedness to combat a pandemic crisis. Despite the acceleration of vaccine development, Malaysians must adjust to a new normal post-COVID-19, as, thus far, it is still the best preventive measure at the population level. Many countries, including Malaysia, succeeded in flattening the curve for the earlier waves and achieved zero new cases at one point in time; however, the latest deterioration of the transmission of the disease, the rise in COVID-19 cases and the death toll have put a great concern to all countries, including Malaysia (1). This study aims to describe the indications for the need to assess knowledge, attitude, practise and health literacy (KAPH) of Malaysians towards COVID-19 including (i) analysing factors that attribute to the trend of KAPH level, (ii) providing the baseline for the effect of vaccination and (iii) imparting crucial tool to be incorporated into the new home quarantine policy in Malaysia and the anticipated challenges for such assessment in the post-COVID-19 era. The topic is critically important but is often neglected in the decision-making process to support the management of COVID-19 and vaccination strategies. To date, there were three substantial indicators observed by the authors including the following: Public Compliance Towards the COVID-19-Related Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) The KAPH levels affect the public compliance towards the COVID-19-related SOPs. This pandemic has gotten worse as compared to when it was first started, perhaps due to the suboptimal awareness of the disease within the community. The sudden surge of daily cases since October 2020 triggered the Malaysian government to announce the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) 2.0 from 13 January 2021, which is a more targeted version of the MCO implemented in March 2020, considering the impact on livelihoods of people and the economic stability of the country. Even though the current daily confirmed cases showed a reduction in trend starting the end of February 2021, we could visualise the recent increasing trend of reproduction number that is worrisome (2). With many sectors opening recently, including the schools and stores, this may pose the rise of risk of transmission in the community. Thus, public compliance towards the SOPs is substantial in affecting the changes in the infectivity trend. We need to assess the KAPH of the community on COVID-19 from time to time and analyse factors related to the trend of KAPH level, as these may assist public health authorities to plan and implement the appropriate preventive and control measures accordingly. Besides that, fake news remains a significant concern to the public health fraternity as this could lead to grave misunderstanding and confusion. Subsequently, this will affect their attitudes and how people react to COVID-19. This issue also could seriously affect the level of KAPH among the public if it is not handled effectively.