INTERNATIONAL: US Vice President, Kamala Harris, has launched a new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention office in Southeast Asia. It will be headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam, and will support operations and activities in 11 countries, including Cambodia.

It was while in Vietnam that Harris made the announcement regarding the CDC’s new regional office. She says the centre has had long-standing relations with Southeast Asia through ASEAN, strengthening public health laboratories, emergency operation centres and health surveillance systems through offices across the region.

The CDC Cambodia office is now part of the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. Its director is Dr. Rachel Albalak. Its first priority will be to ensure that the US continues to assist the Royal Government in its fight against the pandemic, seen most recently in the delivery of over a million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of the COVAX initiative.