PHNOM PENH: Exactly 10 months on Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen has put an end to the major outbreak in Cambodia – the February 20 Community Transmission Incident. The Prime Minster has released a voice message on Monday finally ending the biggest struggle of the kingdom in its fight against Covid-19.
The February 20 community outbreak started when four Chinese nationals escaped quarantine from Sokha Hotel bribing security guards which causes more than 120,000 infectionS with over 3000 people lost their lives.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has surprised the whole country on Monday. He has announced the end of the February 20 Community Transmission Event – the biggest struggle of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Just in time when the kingdom has recorded no death for the first time in several months. The February 20 outbreak has infected a total of 120,423 people with 3,005 did not manage to survive. The Prime Minister has made the decision in the wake of the Omicron variant. Four imported cases have been detected from international arrivals. However, the Prime Minister has urged people not to get panic.
In his speech on Monday, Prime Minister says that the death toll has come down steadily to this day, with no deaths being recorded and it is considered a success or a big reduction in the struggle with Covid-19.
The Prime Minister says, “Now the situation is clear. As a result of the efforts of the Cabinet, the permission of both the public and private sectors, as well as the people in self-defense, today I need to declare to end of the 20 February event, but doesn’t mean the declaration of an end of the fight against Covid 19. We have just announced the end of the 20 February event, but the fight against the Covid 19 is still a work in progress. This work cannot be neglected. Please no more any other community events to happen and please death and infection will lead to zero mortality, and so on through the efforts of every person, every family, each community, in implementing health measures, with the efforts of the health sector to continue vaccination. For those who have not been vaccinated, because of different reasons, if some of you are infected from Covid-19, some of you are pregnant, some of you have to give birth, now you have to continue to get vaccinated.”
He has also said, “I declare, I am really proud of all the staff, joining me when I lead the fight campaign in this 20 February event. I would like to take this opportunity to tell my friends, especially the People's Republic of China, that the nation shows us the strategy for supplying vaccines to us. I would like to thank the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom, the Netherlands for providing vaccines to help Cambodia and hope that next Sunday, Australia will send the pledged vaccine to Cambodia either on the 26th or the 28th - more than 2,300,000 doses of vaccines more. It is like an ingredients in the community to reduce infection and reduce the number of deaths due to the effects of this vaccine. We can reduce the number of infections, and if they get infected, it does not lead to seriousness and death. I declare to those who have died I want to express my condolences to the family of the deceased. Sadly, we have observed that those who have died are more likely to be chronically ill, the elderly, especially due to the complications brought by Covid-19.”
According to the Prime Minister, more than 14 million of the population have been vaccinated. However, he still continue to encourage everyone to get their booster shots. He has hoped that there will no longer be community outbreak that will occur in Cambodia and that people will continue to learn to live with Covid-19.
