COVID-19 Outbreak

Coronavirus insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(COVID-19); outbreak has been declared as a global health disruption, and at the same time affecting the global economy. As the phenomena are unprecedented, there is a lack of studies on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, especially in Malaysia. For preventing the virus transmission to the plethora of people, the Malaysian government declared Movement Control Order insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(MCO); on 18 March 2020 in which the citizens are ordered to practice‘social distancing’ to avoid further outbreak of COVID-19 . Therefore, the study aims to identify the impact of COVID-19 transmission on SME businesses in Malaysia.This study employed an online survey system using a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed all over the country through social media. Findings indicated that the spreading of of COVID-19 in Malaysia has significant impacts on SME business, which affected almost 87% of business owners in the study. Only 13% of business owners in this study are not affected as they have an online business. The findings reveal that 76% are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak as they need to shut down their business during MCO. The remaining of the respondents are still operating their business as they are of the `food and beverage` sector