Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel pneumonia disease originating in Wuhan, was confirmed by the World Health Organization on January 12, 2020 before becoming an outbreak in all countries. Outbreak situation: A stringent screening process at all airports in Malaysia was enforced after the first case outside China was reported in Thailand. Up to April 14, 2020, Malaysia had reported two waves of COVID-19 cases, with the first wave ending successfully within less than 2 months. In early March 2020, the second wave occurred, with worrying situations. Actions taken: The Government of Malaysia enforced a Movement Control Order starting on March 18, 2020 to break the chain of COVID-19. The media actively spread the hashtag #stayhome. Nongovernmental organizations, as well as prison inmates, started to produce personal protective equipment for frontliners. Various organizations hosted fundraising events to provide essentials mainly to hospitals. A provisional hospital was set up and collaborations with healthcare service providers were granted, while additional laboratories were assigned to enhance the capabilities of the Ministry of Health. Economic downturn: An initial financial stimulus amounting to RM 20.0 billion was released in February 2020, before the highlighted PRIHATIN Package, amounting to RM 250 billion, was announced. The PRIHATIN Package has provided governmental support to society, covering people of various backgrounds from students and families to business owners.

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Since ancient Egypt, orthosis was generally made from wood and then later replaced with metal and leather which are either heavy, bulky, or thick decreasing comfort among the wearers. After the age of revolution, the manufacturing of products using plastics and carbon composites started to spread due to its low cost and form-fitting feature whereas carbon composite were due to its high strength/stiffness to weight ratio. Both plastic and carbon composite has been widely applied into medical devices such as the orthosis and prosthesis. However, carbon composite is also quite expensive, making it the less likely material to be used as an Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO) material whereas plastics has low strength. Kenaf composite has a high potential in replacing all the current materials due to its flexibility in controlling the strength to weight ratio properties, cost-effectiveness, abundance of raw materials, and biocompatibility. The aim of this review paper is to discuss on the possibility of using kenaf composite as an alternative material to fabricate orthotics and prosthetics. The discussion will be on the development of orthosis since ancient Egypt until current era, the existing AFO materials, the problems caused by these materials, and the possibility of using a Kenaf fiber composite as a replacement of the current materials. The results show that Kenaf composite has the potential to be used for fabricating an AFO due to its tensile strength which is almost similar to polypropylene's (PP) tensile strength, and the cheap raw material compared to other type of materials.

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Each year, more than 330 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide. The main consumers of plastics are the packaging (40%), building (20%) and automotive (8%) industries, as well as for the manufacture of household appliances. The vast majority of industrial plastics are not biodegradable and, therefore, create environmental problems due to the increase in the amount of solid waste. Studies have been conducted to produce biodegradable materials such as bioplastics to overcome this environmental problem. Bioplastics are defined as materials that are bio-based, biodegradable, or both; they can provide excellent biodegradability and can be used to help alleviate environmental problems. Therefore, this article presents an overview of the introduction of bioplastic materials and classifications, and a comprehensive review of their drawbacks and areas of importance, including basic and applied research, as well as biopolymer mixtures and biocomposites developed in the last decade. At the same time, this article provides insights into the development of bioplastics research to meet the needs of many industries, especially in the packaging industry in Malaysia. This review paper also focuses generally on bioplastic packaging applications such as food and beverage, healthcare, cosmetics, etc.