He said he agreed with head of the Selangor Taskforce on Covid-19 (STFC) Dzulkefly Ahmad and Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari that if a lockdown was to be imposed, it must be supported by provisions such as financial assistance for the most affected groups including the B40, and a clear strategy for mass testing and beyond (Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support or FTTIS).

In a statement, he said if there is going to be a lockdown, Muhyiddin Yassin and the finance, health, defence, human resources, international trade and industry, and home affairs ministers must jointly hold a press conference.

The other two government representatives who should attend the press conference are the national immunisation programme coordinator and the director-general of health.

Ong said they must be able to answer questions on their plans for mass testing and tracing during such a lockdown, the timeline for approval of vaccines such as Sputnik (from Russia) and CanSino, how they would control outbreaks at factories, and financial assistance rollout for the most affected, among others.

“Let’s avoid the previous situation of one-man-show press conferences which then have to be followed up by U-turns because one minister wasn’t communicating with another,” he said.

There has been increasing speculation that some form of lockdown would be implemented in light of a drastic increase in Covid-19 cases. Yesterday, the health ministry reported 6,075 cases – a new high following the previous record of 5,728 cases on Jan 30.

Selangor recorded the highest number of cases with 2,251 infections.

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