People wear face masks while moving on a road in Phnom Penh capital of Cambodia (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – In contrast to some regionalcountries, Cambodia has begun easing restrictions imposed for the past sixweeks that followed a COVID-19 outbreak last November.
On January 4, students wearing masks lined up fortemperature checks and hand washing before being allowed to enter theSovannaphumi primary school in the capital Phnom Penh.
While private schoolshave started reopening this week, students at public schools are due to returnnext week.
Cambodia has alsoreopened the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a famous tourist destination in PhnomPenh.
In November, Cambodia putin place a range of restrictions after an outbreak of community transmissionlinked with a 56-year-old woman who had travelled to the country’s two biggestcities since November 20.
Meanwhile, the Khmer Times reported that the CambodianGovernment has announced the postponement of the 7th River Festival,scheduled to take place in Kampong Thom province, due to the pandemic anddecided that the provincial administrationshould begin preparations for the next River Festival in 2022.
The 6th River Festival in Battambang province lastyear was held as scheduled despite fears over COVID-19.
In neighbouring Thailand, authorities warned on January4 that the country could face a strict lockdown as infection numbers climbed,spurring it to declare 28 provinces high-risk zones.
The same day, Singapore said it will considerrelaxing travel restrictions for people who have been vaccinated againstCOVID-19, including for those planning to visit the city-state for theWorld Economic Forum (WEF) in May.
The country has largely banned leisure travel becauseof the pandemic, and has limited business and official travel agreements withcertain nations.
Last week, it became one of the first countries inAsia to embark on a national inoculation programme.
Singaporean Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said more vaccines are expected to arrive in Singapore inthe next few months, including those by US firm Moderna and China's Sinovac.
He said in the parliament that there will be enough COVID-19vaccines for Singaporeans and long-term residents of Singapore by the thirdquarter of 2021 if all goes according to plan.
The country received itsfirst shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in December.
In Indonesia, a massvaccination programme is set to start next week as about 700,000 dosesof vaccines have already been widely distributed.
The nationhas secured more than 329 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, most notably fromPfizer and its partner BioNTech, and AstraZeneca. However, those to be used inthe first phase are CoronaVac, the vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin,Indonesia’s health minister, has said that the country needs to inoculate about181 million people, or roughly 67 percent of its population. About 1.3 millionhealth workers would be first in line for the shots, followed by publicservants./.
VNA
