Cambodia ready to set up COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant

Students wait to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Phnom Penh (VNA) - Cambodia is making all preparations to cooperate with China to set up a COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant, either by end of this year or 2023, said Secretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Health Youk Sambath.

Khmer Times cited the official as saying that the ministry recently had a teleconference with the China National Pharmaceutical company (Sinopharm) and the Chinese Government on the plant establishment in Cambodia.

The first round of discussion was fruitful and positive, she added.

On late March 15, Cambodia received 523,100 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the Hungarian Government at Phnom Penh International Airport. The gift marked the first humanitarian assistance from Hungary to Cambodia since the European country officially reopened its embassy in the Southeast Asian nation in November 2020.

With this gift, Cambodia has in its storage 7,800,000 doses of Sinopharm, 324,000 doses of Covishield, 2,644,940 doses of AstraZeneca, 1,600,100 doses of Johnson & Johnson, 188,160 doses of Moderna, and 2,350,530 doses of Pfizer.

To date, it has had 43,792,540 doses of vaccines and expects to receive more than seven million doses in September, according to Sambath.

As of March 16, the country obtained the target of vaccinating 92.27 percent of the 16-million-strong population./.

VNA