Evaluating the COVID-19 Preventive Measures Practised at Two Petrol Stations in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Abstract

In conjunction with the pandemic situation of COVID-19 around the world, the Prime Minister of Malaysia announced the first Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020 which forbade mass gatherings activities and international travels. The MCO imposed the closure of most sectors and premises except for essential sectors and services, including petrol pump stations as listed by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs of Malaysia under strict standard operating procedures (SOPs). The transmission of COVID-19 at petrol pump stations is one of the biggest concerns due to the high traffic and frequent visits by many individuals. The existing COVID-19 preventive measures at petrol pump stations were compared with safe work procedures for the prevention of COVID-19 in the workplace from the literature review from various sources. The results conclude that workers at Station A have better safe practices on COVID-19 preventive measures compared to those at Station B with a higher percentage of safe practices for most of the questions listed. The analysed data collected through the observations were used as input to evaluate the practicality of existing COVID-19 preventive measures at petrol pump stations among workers and customers based on the frequency of safe and unsafe practices conducted. The activities with a high frequency of unsafe practices were used as input to propose a framework of COVID-19 preventive measures specifically for petrol pump stations in Malaysia to increase the practicality of such measures.