#Coronavirus dominates the Malaysia Twitter sphere on January 28.

The new coronavirus that emerged in China at end of last year is causing growing panic as the death toll continues to increase.

Data shows the social network analysis of ‘Coronavirus’ on Twitter on January 28, 2020. The overall network can be separated into 5 significant clusters which are orange, green, purple, yellow and pink.

The network is dominated by the hashtag #coronavirus from the green cluster. Netizens on Twitter actively talk about the rapidly spreading virus on Twitter while hash-tagging #coronavirus in their tweets.

Next is purple. This cluster is dominated by user @NabilHussein. @NabilHussein goes by the name PU Nabil on Twitter. In Malaysia, PU is referred to as ‘Pencetus Ummah’. However, Nabil refers to himself as ‘Pemecah Ummah’. He is popular for his sarcastic tweets. In his tweet, he joked about chasing Chinese tourists who arrive at the KLIA airport back to their country. His tweet blew up, gaining 21,000 retweets and almost 19,000 likes.

Since the outbreak on December 31, 2019, many countries have had their citizens infected by the virus, including Malaysia. On this day, Astro Awani (@501Awani) from the orange cluster appears as the main influencer, regularly providing Twitter updates about the current condition in Wuhan after the outbreak.

The yellow cluster is dominated by @KemenkesRI which is the official account of Indonesia’s Ministry of Health. On this day, @KemenkesRI provided a hotline number where people could call in if they have any concerns about the coronavirus.

Last but not least is pink. The cluster is led by @KKMPutrajaya which is the Ministry of Health Malaysia. They update about the current situation by informing the number of positive coronavirus cases in Malaysia.

Coronavirus is rapidly spreading across the world. It is reported that the number of Wuhan Coronavirus cases has overtaken the 2003 SARS outbreak in China.