Phnom Penh: A new community case of the dreaded Delta variant has been detected in Phnom Penh. A woman living in Sangkat Tuol Sangke 1, Russey Keo, has been found to have been living with the variant. While it’s not known exactly how long she has been positive, she did visit her hometown of Prek Kmeng Village in the Lvea Em District of Kandal, last weekend.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, Hun Manet, released details of the case to the media this morning. Urgent contact tracing is underway for the family and their friends.

On Sunday night, the Health Ministry announced another five Delta cases - one of them a Malaysian national, the others in migrant workers from Thailand undergoing treatment at the Sen Sok Medical Centre. The other cases were a healthcare worker at Calmette Gynecology Hospital and a sanitation worker. The cases were among a total of 109 new Delta cases found in the country. These are in addition to the 114 Delta cases detected in the country as at 27 July. Phnom Penh is now the 5th province in the country to have Delta variant cases, after Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Siem Reap and Kampong Thom.

The delta cases have been detected just as the Prime Minister announced the immediate rollout of booster shots for those who have been inoculated with Sinopharm or Sinovac. Frontline workers, government officials and the media are to receive booster shots of AstraZeneca vaccine. The 332-thousand doses recently delivered by Japan are being used. The UK will be delivering 415-thousand doses on Wednesday. Officials have been instructed by the Prime Minister to urgently secure more.

Also overnight, the balance of 609,600 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine arrived from the United States through the COVAX initiative. Those doses are to be used for frontline healthcare workers along the border, as well as for ethnic communities in Mondulkiri, Kratie and Ratanakiri.