Phnom Penh Worst Hit as 37 New COVID Cases Emerge
A woman wearing a face mask checks her temperature at a Covid-19 coronavirus screening point before entering a market in Phnom Penh on March 17, 2021. (Photo: AFP)
- Phoung Vantha
- April 1, 2021 5:04 AM
Inoculations to be ramped up as vaccines arrive
PHNOM PENH--Another 35 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, all linked to the Feb. 20 outbreak, have been reported, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. Two more cases were imported.
Forty-nine people who caught the virus from the cluster have recovered.
Phnom Penh was again worst-affected, with 31 new cases identified. Preah Sihanouk and Kandal province recorded two each.
The other two cases were imported, including an Indonesian woman who arrived in Cambodia on March 30, and an Indonesian man, who arrived on March 18.
The latest cases bring Cambodia’s total to 2477, of which 1,219 are active and patients are receiving treatment, and 1240 have been discharged.
Fourteen people have died since the outbreak on Feb. 20 and the government has listed the official causes of these deaths as COVID-19.
The government has launched the Sinovac vaccination campaign for doctors, government officials, workers, employees, companies, and target groups who registered on April 1.
The National Covid-19 Vaccination Commission said about 74,000 people will be in the target groups to be vaccinated, including doctors, frontline health workers, members of the National Assembly and Senate, and their families.
Groups also include contracted civil servants in ministries and institutions at the national and sub-national levels, teachers at various institutions, as well as journalists and those who have submitted their lists to the Covid-19 Vaccination Commission.
On March 31, 700,000 China-donated Sinopharm vaccine doses arrived in Cambodia. Another 1.5 million doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, for which Cambodia paid $15 million, arrived on March 26.
Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on March 29 that the vaccination campaign is expected to ramp up to a million doses per month.
As of March 31, the number of vaccinated Cambodians had risen slightly to 407,249 but 140,902 of these were military personnel while the other 266,347 were citizens considered a priority.
