Phnom Penh municipal authorities are distributing 252,500 cloth face masks to the public in 14 districts and at 25 market locations after obtaining the masks from Prime Minister Hun Sen following the outbreak of Covid-19 community transmission in the capital on February 20.
According to the municipal hall, each district received 10,000 masks and each market received 4,500 masks.
Chbar Ampov district governor Cheng Monyra said on February 22 that he had met with his commune chiefs to give advice on using the QR Code system for contact tracing and to plan the distribution of the masks.
“We announced the use of the QR Code technology for preventing Covid-19 spread and then we distributed the masks to commune halls,” he said.
Chbar Ampov I commune chief Pov Huot said on February 22 that the commune had received 1,000 masks to hand out to locals and that the commune authorities would distribute the masks to poor people in particular.
“The people living in poor communities are the main target for our distribution of the masks. They are living in crowded conditions and earn very little money,” he said.
Hort Vanthy, head of the management committee for Orussey Market in Prampi Makara district, said they are handing out the masks to all market goers and any other people near the market, and especially to poor people who cannot afford to buy masks. When handing out the masks they also advised people to follow preventive measures recommended by the Ministry of Health.
“Today, I brought along 1,200 masks for distribution to market goers, moto-dops and others. The handy thing about them is that these masks that the prime minister gifted to us can be washed and used again,” he said.
