He said the nation is in a critical situation with new cases expected to surge above 10,000 daily, and even with an extended lockdown, they may not drop below 5,000 per day.

“Let’s be realistic, two weeks of total lockdown will not be enough,” the PKR MP for Gopeng said in a statement, adding that cases will rebound as soon as restrictions are eased.

Lee said the same “failures” from MCO 3.0 were being implemented in the total lockdown starting tomorrow. “Do we expect a different outcome from the total lockdown?” he asked.

He also said there was a lack of close contact tracing mechanism.

“The failure to identify, test and isolate close contacts within 48 hours caused the chain of transmission to continue and new cases to multiply,” he said.

He proposed the hiring of additional manpower to carry out contact tracing, “which will act as an investment in the long run as infections are curbed”.

“I made this suggestion last year on April 28. Unfortunately, this was not done,” he said.

He also pointed to the failure to develop mass testing, with the current capacity of less than 200,000 tests a day far from adequate.

“If we are able to do millions of tests per day, only then can the duration of any MCO be limited to two weeks because all infected cases can be identified and isolated within the period,” he said,

Lee said another failure was poor SOP compliance by the people. “This is partly contributed by flip-flop SOPs, too,” he said.

He called on the government to expedite the vaccination programme, as it would take another 88 days for 16 million doses to be administered in order to flatten the curve, from the present rate of 150,000 doses a day.

“It will only be achieved at the end of August. Can our economy sustain such a long duration of lockdown?” he asked.

“Get more vaccines by all means. Get more centres for vaccination. Get to 300,000 doses per day.”

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