The ongoing Covid-19 vaccination campaign carried out in six districts of Phnom Penh – all formerly red zones – has been a huge success, according to Ith Sarath, Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Joint Chief of Staff of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces who oversees the drive in the capital.
Sarath said that in just one month since the campaign began on May 1, a total of 900,000 people out of 1.3 million targeted had been inoculated. He also announced that the administration of first doses will be extended for another five days to allow more than 100,000 additional people to be vaccinated.
“Over the next few days or maybe five days to come, we will finish with the first doses, mostly for workers,” he said on May 31 while inspecting vaccination in Por Sen Chey district.
“Our one-month campaign is lagging a bit because the numbers keep increasing. I ask brothers and sisters who have yet to be vaccinated with their first doses to rush and go get them.
“The vaccinations in the districts will soon be finished and then our medics can go and vaccinate people in other places on the orders of Samdech Techo Prime Minister [Hun Sen], wherever it is most urgent,” he said.
He also called on people who are set to get their second doses to get them on time in order to create the full immunisation effect in their bodies.
Sarath noted that in four districts – formerly red zones where the vaccination programme had begun first – there were still many more workers who have yet to get vaccinated because the factories had closed their doors during the lockdown. When the factories reopened they went back to work to get their vaccinations.
“So, we decided to extend the campaign another five days for the first doses and another 15 days for the second shots,” he said.
He also called on the local authorities to check and see if other workers who are not from the districts in which they live were coming to get vaccinated in groups. Those who are not in their home districts should be rejected.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on May 29 announced that Cambodia will receive 4.5 million more doses of vaccines this month and that at least five to six million people will be vaccinated before the end of this year.
He said he will also strive to procure vaccines for a total of 10 million people so that every citizen will be inoculated.
The Ministry of Health reported that as of May 30 Cambodia had vaccinated 2,567,493 people.