Cambodia
US, Hungary and ASEAN shore up the Southeast Asian nation’s vaccine stocks
A boy receives a dose of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine at a health center in Phnom Penh on Feb. 23. (Photo: AFP)
China has announced it will donate 20 million Covid-19 vaccinations to Cambodia as Prime Minister Hun Sen urged a joint manufacturing venture to speed up development for a homegrown inoculation against the disease.
He said the incoming donation from the Chinese government would ensure that Cambodia had enough vaccines to inoculate its entire population of about 16.5 million people well into the future.
“Vaccine production must also continue to be promoted,” he said. “We must put efforts to work with the Chinese stakeholders to establish a homegrown Covid-19 vaccine factory in Cambodia.”
Thank you. You are now signed up to Daily newsletter
SIGN UP NOW!
Stay up to date Don’t miss out on the latest News
In addition, the United States has announced it will donate an additional two million doses of Pfizer Covid-91 vaccines through the COVAX facility as Hun Sen praised Hungary for donating 523,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Cambodia has received 50 million vaccine donations from Australia, China, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, the US and the United Kingdom and has about six million doses in stock.
Cambodia won widespread praise for its rapid rollout of its vaccination program. Officials say more than 90 percent of the population has been vaccinated against the contagious and potentially deadly disease.
“Vaccines will continue to be a key strategic good in preventing the spread as well as learning to live with Covid-19 and reopening socioeconomic activities”
According to Our World in Data, 88.4 percent of the population has received at least one dose while 83 percent have had two jabs and 52.9 percent a third booster.
Hun Sen said Cambodia would not discriminate against any country in terms of vaccine aid while urging Cambodian medical experts to build cohesive cooperation with Chinese medical experts including development of traditional Chinese medicines.
“Cambodia believes that vaccination is a top priority for all of us, and vaccines will continue to be a key strategic good in preventing the spread as well as learning to live with Covid-19 and reopening socioeconomic activities,” he said.
“To build herd immunity, Cambodia will not say no to the assistance in vaccines against Covid-19.”
Cambodia emerged relatively unscathed during the first year of the pandemic but Covid-19 hit hard as the Delta variant emerged, resulting in a shutdown and food security issues in the middle of last year.
Omicron also took a toll but Cambodia had reached herd immunity by the time it erupted late last year. More recently, the number of confirmed daily cases has fallen to fewer than 100 a day.
Last week Cambodia dropped all testing for Covid-19 and reintroduced its pre-pandemic visa-on-arrival system in a bid to resuscitate its economy, especially sectors like tourism.
However, all inbound passengers must still present a full Covid-19 vaccination certificate upon arrival. If not, then travelers must get vaccinated within 14 days at a location designated by the Ministry of Health.
Latest News
Credit: Source link
