From late March through late August, Phnom Penh and 22 provinces have recorded more than 1,700 cases of the coronavirus Delta variant while Kep and Kratie provinces have yet to detect a single case.
Kratie deputy provincial governor Pen Linat told The Post on August 30 that his province was proud to have prevented the spread of delta thus far, citing educational measures undertaken by the provincial administration and participation by all of the citizenry as reasons for their success.
“Our province took necessary precautions. In addition to health measures, we have educated people to be extra careful and to strictly implement the three dos and three don’ts including wearing masks regularly,” he said.
He added that the local authorities played an important role in monitoring and controlling people from out of town who arrived so that they were all placed in quarantine and had their health checked on a regular basis.
He said the authorities had monitored and kept migrants and people from other provinces entering Kratie away from regular residents in order to avoid infections.
On the Kratie provincial border, police forces were not deployed to do medical check-ups but simply to ensure that all arrivals entered quarantine.
“I know that the people of Kratie province have a very clear understanding of the virus and the protections against Covid-19, because the education about this new virus has been ongoing for almost two years since our country first detected an infection from this disease,” he said.
Linat also asked all people to continue to exercise caution in order to prevent the spread of the disease – especially the delta variant – and he would continue to work with the provinces bordering Kratie to prevent Covid-19 from spreading there.
The Ministry of Health announced that from March 31 through August 28, Cambodia had detected 1,752 cases of the delta variant, mostly in Phnom Penh, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap provinces.
The ministry said the positive delta cases were from a wide cross-section of Cambodia’s population including airline passengers, migrant workers from Thailand and Vietnam, community members, workers for private companies, health workers, merchants, civil servants, members of the armed forces, prisoners, translators, garment factory workers, bank staff, Buddhist nuns and students.
World Health Organisation representative to Cambodia Li Ailan also said this highly contagious variant was spreading by community transmission in Cambodia.
“The delta variant is here with us now and it is very threatening to Cambodia,” she tweeted on August 29.
