PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that the three measures of protection, the ‘3 Dos and 3 Don’t’s’,’ is still necessary even if the outdoor mask mandate has been lifted. He made this statement while speaking at the closing ceremony of the meeting to review the work of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) in 2020-2021, and to set the work direction for the Ministry in 2021-2022.

The Prime Minister said “although the mask mandate has been lifted, I still encourage people to wear masks […] Today, on the streets, I see that around 60% of people still continue wearing masks.”

He added, “At present, we have only won small battles, we have not yet won the war (against Covid-19). Covid-19 variants like Alpha, Delta we have gotten over, but these were just small battles.”

"If anything happens, we will return to mandatory mask-wearing, and we will monitor the situation after we have lifted the mask mandate.”

The Prime Minister further stated that lifting the obligation to wear masks was to facilitate the general public’s livelihoods, as people had to spend a lot of extra expenses buying masks.

It should be noted that after the 28 November 2020 outbreak, Prime Minister Hun Sen released a video on 15 December 2020 from his house, announcing the implementation of the ‘3 Do’s and 3 Don’t’s,’ in which wearing mask wearing was listed as a priority measure. Since then, Cambodians have been using wearing masks for more than a year.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a special voice message released on Tuesday morning, "Keep the mask with you when you go to places where mask-wearing is still necessary, as determined by the Ministry of Health. The relevant departments will take measures to confirm later on where to masks will and will not still be required.”

^{PHOTO: EAC NEWS}