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While the lockdown appears to be easing up, there remain more than 7,000 active cases—some 3,200 of which do not have hospital beds or access to healthcare due to the volume of COVID-19 cases.
PHNOM PENH--Following a tumultuous 11 days of lockdown in the Cambodian capital, the government has clarified and rewritten the restrictions for the locked-down population. These are the latest lockdown rules that are applicable from April 29 until May 5, but the ban on the sale of alcohol remains in place until May 8.
According to the newest guidelines available, the city is divided into red, orange and yellow zones, depending on the risk of COVID-19 infections and the severity of outbreaks within these parts of the city.
Red Zones
Red zones have now been confirmed after a day of calamity following speculation and a leaked list of zone designations from the Ministry of Information.
Inside these newly listed red zones, movement beyond the house is prohibited, barring medical emergencies. It is not immediately clear whether residents living in red zones will be able to leave for vaccination against COVID-19, but earlier revisions to the restrictions suggested that vaccinations will be mandatory for everyone living in lockdown.
All business activities in red zones are also prohibited according to City Hall, including markets, but also gatherings of people—especially gatherings involving alcohol—are banned.
Orange Zones
Meanwhile the city’s newly introduced orange zones include the following:
Inside the orange zones, residents may leave their homes, but only when necessary—for shopping and medical emergencies. Business activities not declared essential by the government remain banned, as does gatherings or the reopening of markets. Grocery stores and restaurants that offer takeout services are permitted, but dining in is not.
However, residents in the orange zones will be able to leave their homes, but only within the existing curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and it remains unclear based on currently available information whether residents in the orange zone can visit red or yellow zones.
Yellow Zones
The city’s yellow zones include:
Gatherings are limited to 10 people and may not involve alcohol, but travel within the yellow zones appears to be more relaxed and all business activities are able to resume, as are funerals and other household gatherings with family members, but the curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. must remain in place.
The government has stressed that these rules will be enforced from April 29, after the initial 2-week lockdown of the city ends, until May 5, but may well be extended beyond this. Similarly, the sale of alcohol throughout red, orange and yellow zones is prohibited.
There is every chance that, given the continuously rising cases of COVID-19, that the government’s ever-shifting set of rules will change and it appears likely that further extensions of zones and rules will be applied.
This concludes the latest chaotic update from Cambodia’s government in response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has so far killed—officially—82 people and seen Cambodia’s total number of cases to 11,063.
While it appears the lockdown is easing up, there remain 7,270 active cases, of which 3,254 have no hospital bed due to the over-stretched public healthcare system in Cambodia.