The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still evolving and affecting millions of lives. E-government and social media have been used widely during this unprecedented time to spread awareness and educate the public on preventive measures. However, the extent to which the 2 digital platforms bring to improve public health awareness and prevention during a health crisis is unknown. In this study, we examined the influence of e-government and social media on the public's attitude to adopt protective behavior. For this purpose, a Web survey was conducted among 404 Malaysian residents during the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) period in the country. Descriptive and multiple regression analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS software. Social media was chosen by most of the respondents (n = 331 or 81.9%) as the source to get information related to COVID-19. Multiple regression analysis suggests the roles of e-government and social media to be significantly related to people's attitudes to engage in protective behavior. In conclusion, during the COVID-19 outbreak, public health decision makers may use e-government and social media platforms as effective tools to improve public engagement on protective behavior. This, in turn, will help the country to contain the transmission of the virus.

Center for Basic and Applied Research Faculty of Informatics and Management University of Hradec Kralove Hradec Kralove Czechia

Department of Economics Faculty of Informatics and Management University of Hradec Kralove Hradec Kralove Czechia

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Universiti Putra Malaysia Selangor Malaysia

Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

School of Engineering Monash University Selangor Malaysia

Sunway University Business School Sunway University Selangor Malaysia

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