Cambodia: Informal sector workers to be prioritised in COVID-19 vaccination

Street disinfection to prevent the COVID-19 spread in Kandal province, Cambodia. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Phnom Penh (VNA) – Three-wheelers and taxi drivers, vendors, and transport workers in Phnom Penh will be included in the priority groups for the national COVID-19 vaccination under a plan of the Cambodian Government.

Some 400,000 of the newly-arrived 700,000 doses of China-donated Sinopharm vaccine will be administered to the high-risk people in the informal economy, said Prime Minister Hun Sen in a message.

Phnom Penh has become a hot spot for COVID-19, he said, more vaccines will be given to people in the capital as much as possible.

Cambodia is now conducting a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign at both national and sub-national levels for frontline medical staff, officials of National Assembly and Senate and their family members, local officers, civil servants, teachers, journalists, factory workers, etc.

The Government of Cambodia has planned at least 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the campaign in 2021.

Cambodia has so far received more than 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines – 1.5 million doses of Sinovac bought from China, 1.3 million doses of China-donated Sinopharm, and 324,000 doses of AstraZeneca/SII (COVISHIELD) donated by WHO via COVAX Facility.

As of 4:00pm on April 3, Cambodia’s Ministry of Health reported 99 new COVID-19 cases, taking the national count to 2,645, including 1,585 recoveries and 19 deaths./.

VNA