Pandemic management and inter - agency cooperation among public agency in Malaysia

The level of effectiveness of COVID-19 pandemic management throughout the pandemic has not been fiilly measured by most researchers and scholars. This measurement is very important to ensure that every policy and SOP that has been formulated can be further streamlined so that the pandemic management system and cooperation between agencies can be implemented properly and in an orderly manner. Therefore, the literature suggests 3 factors (risk awareness, containment operation and coordination) that contribute to the effectiveness of pandemic management and these factors are influenced by 1 other factor (command and control) to further strengthen the effectiveness of key factors in effective pandemic management. Quantitative research methods were used for this research. Primary data were collected using an online questionnaire platform developed using the Google Forms application. A total of 6 governmentagencies directly involved in pandemic management during the outbreak of the COVID- 19 pandemic were selected for primary data collection. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science version 27.0 in which descriptive analysis. non-experimental design correlation, and multiple linear regression were performed. Descriptive analysis found that the level of each independent variable was high, and this indicated that all such variables existed at high (or considered high) levels. Meanwhile, correlation analysis found that all independent variables have a strong relationship with effective pandemic management. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis found that command and control did not affect the independent variables to achieve effective pandemic management. Coordination has had the strongest impact in explaining variations in pandemic management. The second highest variable was risk awareness and containment operations being the lowest independent variable and providing minimal impact on COVID-19 pandemic management. Therefore, it can be concluded that these three independent variables provide positive effects and impacts in pandemic management. In conclusion, all objectives and hypotheses of the study were evaluated and were statistically validated.