Prime Minister Hun Sen will return to work and start presiding over events again if his fourth Covid-19 test is negative on November 18, when his quarantine ends.

On November 4, Hun Sen announced the cancellation and postponement of several scheduled programmes while he spent 14 days in self-quarantine to comply with health protocol.

The prime minister and roughly 1,300 others who were in direct and indirect contact with Covid-19-positive Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto during his November 3 visit have had their samples examined for the coronavirus and are awaiting a fourth, final test.

On November 15, another 28 people connected to the so-called “November 3 event” took their third Covid-19 test, according to the Ministry of Health. A total of 1,352 samples were examined during the third test, all of which came out negative.

After the three rounds of tests, only four people tested positive.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan told The Post on November 16 that Hun Sen had delegated representatives to take over some events while others had been postponed. He said if the fourth test is negative, Hun Sen would start to attend meetings in person again.

“During self-quarantine, Prime Minister Hun Sen has been doing his work normally through electronic means. He just could not go out to meet with people, to avoid any unwanted transmission of the virus. But at the end of the 14-day quarantine, he will definitely go out to meet the public because of his attentiveness [to the people],” Siphan said.

Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol said on November 15 while leading a delegation of the ministry’s technical working group to inspect 38 streets being constructed in Siem Reap province that a ceremony for the construction was planned for November 30.

Chanthol said the event will be presided over by the prime minister.

Meanwhile, You Sunlong, the minister attached to the prime minister, said Hun Sen would preside over a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a road linking Stung Trang district in Kampong Cham province to Kroch Chhmar district in Tbong Khmum province.

This ceremony was scheduled to take place in Prek Kak commune’s Boeung Deng village in Kampong Cham’s Stung Trang district on December 7.

Meanwhile, health minister Mam Bunheng called on people involved in the November 3 event to complete their quarantine and take the final Covid test.

“Although the third tests were all negative for Covid-19, which is a good result for Cambodia now, we must not forget that the Covid-19 virus may invade us at any time, under any circumstance and anywhere. There are only a few days left until the fourth test day, which will take place on November 18,” Bunheng said.

As of November 16, there are a total of 302 Covid-19 patients in Cambodia, 289 of whom have been discharged from hospitals, the ministry said.