Or Vandine, head of the national Covid-19 vaccination committee, has urged municipal and provincial governors to accelerate their campaign for both first and second doses after noticing slow progress in recent days.

Vandine, who is also Ministry of Health spokeswoman, said the campaign to vaccinate adults aged 18 and older has not reached its goal of 10 million yet.

“This requires authorities at all levels to mobilise their residents who have not received their first dose to get it at their village and commune and make plans to encourage all of them to get the vaccine on a voluntary basis,” she said in a letter dated August 23.

She said the committee has noted that there are several categories of people who make up a large number of those who missed their first opportunity for vaccination including women who just delivered babies, migrant workers and students who just completed their quarantine requirements.

“The governors have to organise vaccination sites at easily accessible public health facilities such as health centres, district and provincial referral hospitals or any location that enables people to get vaccinated easily,” she said.

Vandine also advised the authorities to frequently announce where and when to get the vaccine in their localities as people can easily forget or fall victim to misinformation.

As of August 22, Cambodia had vaccinated 87.26 per cent of the targeted adult population of 10 million and 50.39 per cent of the 12-17 age group of nearly two million.

The vaccinations progressed quickly in June and July with up to four million people vaccinated in just one month. The vaccination drive reached four million people on June 28, five million by July 13, then six million people on July 19 and seven million on July 28.

After reaching the total of eight million vaccinated on August 10, progress slowed considerably with less than 0.5 per cent progress made each day afterwards.

The latest rate of progress reported was 0.29 per cent from 86.97 on August 21 to 87.26 per cent on August 22, according to the health ministry’s daily vaccinations update.

Vaccinations for booster dose have been increasing since the government permitted them in recent weeks for frontline workers who are at risk of contracting the Delta variant.

As of August 22, a total of 486,834 people had received their booster dose of the AstraZeneca vaccines donated by Japan and the UK.

World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Cambodia Li Ailan commended Cambodia for the decision to provide booster doses for at-risk members of the population who may need added protection against Covid-19.

Li made the remarks while joining Vandine to visit some centenarians who had voluntarily received their jabs on August 22 in Prey Veng province. She said Cambodia’s booster shot is a plausible intervention policy.

“The vaccination campaign in Cambodia is progressing very well and moving quickly. Moreover, the treatment of Covid-19 patients and saving the lives of patients in critical condition is now being done in a more effective and timely manner.

“Through my travels to different places, I saw with my own eyes the enforcement of the policies in place and the decisions that Cambodia is making have consistently put the nation a step ahead of many others,” she said.

According to Li, these positive results are due to lessons learned from real world experience.

She also said the WHO working group was collecting evidence to determine when and how the third dose or booster shot should be provided.

“I urge the government of Cambodia to collect as much detailed data as they can on the booster shot programme they have undertaken so that it can be used to scientifically prove whether third doses are effective or not and when they should be administered,” she said.

Li added that there are small-scale studies and anecdotal evidence suggesting that a third dose would increase immunity further but the rigors of scientific inquiry in the medical field demand that it be proven conclusively one way or the other as soon as possible.