Nine relatives of the 27-year-old female UN Blue Helmet peacekeeper who was confirmed Covid-19 positive on Saturday were placed in quarantine in Kandal province’s Takhmao town, provincial Department of Health director Kuoy Bunthoeurn said on Monday.

The nine have since been tested negative.

Bunthoeurn said authorities are looking for other people who might have come into contact with the peacekeeper.

This comes after Sithbo commune chief Om Leng issued a report to the Takhmao town hall on Monday, that the peacekeeper had travelled home to her village on July 30. The report was circulated on Facebook.

Leng said she had cooked food for elderly people, handed out money and offered food to monks at Champu Prek Pagoda. She had tested positive for the virus after she ran a high fever and had a runny nose, the report said.

“Currently, residents are deeply concerned because the patient had contacted many neighbours. Therefore, we urge the town governor to please be informed and take action favourably,” it added.

Leng could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Takhmao town governor Nou Sovannara said that while nine members of the woman’s family had been kept in quarantine, he had not yet received a report from the commune side.

Bunthoeurn said the provincial health department will release a statement clarifying the report released by Sithbo commune.

But in the meantime, the Kandal provincial administration issued a notice denying the commune report and maintained that it was incorrect.

The report, it said, differed from the observations of health officials and information given by the patient and her family members.

In a separate incident in Tbong Khmum province, a 29-year-old Cambodian man who recovered from the disease tested positive again after he left the hospital.

The man came in direct or indirect contact with at least 43 people in the province and they have all been ordered quarantined, provincial health department director Keo Vannak said.

Vannak said he had arrived in Cambodia from Saudi Arabia on July 10, and had been kept in quarantine at a hotel in Phnom Penh. His first test returned negative.

He said after the patient’s second test came back positive, he was treated at Chak Angre Krom Health Centre in Phnom Penh. He was not allowed to leave the centre after his third test also returned positive.

But after his fourth and fifth tests came back negative, the man was allowed to leave the centre and travelled to his home in Kor commune’s Kandal village in Tbong Khmum district, Tbong Khmum province.

Vannak said 43 people in the village were found to have been in contact the patient. Of them, nine had been in direct contact with him. They have been kept in quarantine at Samdech Decho Hun Sen Suong High School in Suong town.

The other 34 people were held in quarantine in the primary school in the patient’s village.

Cambodia on Monday reported another three Covid-19 patients, taking the total to 251 with two new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 219. Thirty-two are being treated at hospitals.

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