A woman is inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district on April 29. YOUSOS APDOULRASHIM
The Ministry of National Defence will on May 1 begin its large-scale Covid-19 vaccination campaign for people living in four districts in Phnom Penh that have been hit hardest by the disease – Dangkor, Meanchey, Por Sen Chey and Kambol.
Ith Sarath – Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Joint Chief of Staff of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces who oversees the campaign in Phnom Penh – said his working group had prepared 47 vaccination sites located in schools, pagodas, markets, garment factories and military units for residents of 33 communes that have been designated as Red Zones.
Speaking during a ceremony announcing the campaign on April 30, Sarath said there are currently 348,617 residents aged 18 and over and nearly 460,000 garment workers residing in the 33 communes.
He noted that around 26 per cent of the residents and workers in the communes have already been vaccinated, so the number of people who will receive the jabs at the designated sites stands at around 450,000.
Sarath said the ministry had prepared 900,000 doses for residents and workers in the red zones.
Defence minister Tea Banh said at the ceremony that this large-scale vaccination campaign in the high-risk zones was of great significance in the fight against the deadly contagious disease.
So far, Cambodia has inoculated more than 1.3 million people, ranking second in ASEAN for the number of vaccinations against Covid-19, second only to Singapore, according to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Tea Banh said: "The spread of Covid-19 triggered by the February 20 community outbreak has not abated. It is actually deteriorating even though we have introduced a series of strict measures to curb the transmission. It's developing too fast," he said.
The minister said the ongoing outbreak has taken a heavy toll on society, especially the people's livelihoods.
Ministry of Health spokeswoman Or Vandine, who also chairs the national ad-hoc commission on Covid-19 vaccination programme, said at the event that given the seriousness of the situation, even medics have to maintain precautions while administering vaccinations to protect themselves from the highly contagious novel coronavirus.
She also reiterated her call for the public to remain vigilant and strictly follow preventive measures despite having receive their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
