The Health Ministry has come in full support of Prime Minister Hun Sen who wants the National Vaccination Strategy Plan against the Covid-19 pandemic to be fully implemented with the Kingdom still recording new cases and deaths.

Ministry spokeswoman Or Vandine said that the Ministry will follow what Mr Hun Sen announced on Saturday and will make sure that the vaccination plan is carried to the fullest to achieve herd immunity.

She added that they have already vaccinated some 25 percent of the population and will go aggressive on their vaccination campaign to inoculate 80 percent of the population as per the availability of the Covid-19 vaccine doses.

“Following Mr Hun Sen’s message on Saturday, I am already preparing the needful to make sure the National Vaccination Strategic Plan is fully implemented,” she told Khmer Times yesterday.

For now, she said, the Ministry has identified three more districts in Phnom Penh where they need to vaccinate the people and will do so as soon as possible, upon receiving the doses of vaccine.

After they had completed vaccinating the people in Phnom Penh, Vandine said they will start inoculating people in the provinces of Kandal and Preah Sihanouk

On Saturday in a voice message, Mr Hun Sen ordered local officials and provincial governors to stop proposing sector-specific vaccinations in their respective provinces as Cambodia needs to vaccinate all its citizens in order of priority from capital to province.

“We cannot vaccinate here a little bit, that place a little bit, otherwise we will not get benefit from this vaccination issue,” he said, adding that to achieve herd immunity, the government will inoculate those in Phnom Penh and then move to Kandal province and other provinces where worker concentration is high.

Mr Hun Sen said he will discuss with Vandine to give priority to other provinces after Phnom Penh and Kandal according to the process of the Cambodian vaccination plan.

“We will have enough vaccines for the next phase with more than 4.5 million doses arriving in June and beyond,” he said.

He added that the plan to vaccinate 10 million people could be completed by the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Cambodia, Dr Li Ailan, said she will continue to give her full commitment and support to Cambodia in the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak.

She added that she strongly believes that Cambodia will survive this catastrophic eruption after the successful experience of the Kingdom working on prevention and fighting Covid-19.

Dr Ailan said that the situation in Cambodia is still serious, especially the outbreak in some areas such as factories, prisons, markets, and communities.

“I urge all citizens to take action as much as we can to avoid regrets, to reduce the number of cases, and to eradicate the disease in order to avoid a large-scale infection. Cambodia will be ready to learn a new way of life so that there will be no recurrence,” she added.

Cambodia has vaccinated some 2.5 million people, equivalent to more than 24 percent of the population. Cambodia is the second-largest country in ASEAN after Singapore, to expedite vaccination of its people.

According to the report, a total of 2,566,962 people volunteered to be vaccinated against Covid-19 of whom 2,514,790 have been jabbed while 52,172 have been rejected due to health issues. Of  the number, 1,923,406 people have already got their second dose.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported 579 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number in the Kingdom to 29,404. Of the new cases, 21 are imported and the rest are linked to the February 20 Community Event.

The ministry also announced six more deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 209.

At the same time, the ministry recorded 873 recoveries; bringing the total number in the Kingdom to 22,188.

• Tags: COVID-19 in Cambodia, COVID-19 vaccination, Prime Minister Hun Sen