CAMBODIA has reopened the country fully across all sectors from Monday as the nation moves towards its next phase of living with Covid-19.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said the reopening was decided as much of its population have been vaccinated and effective Covid-19 treatments and medicines were available.
According to a Phnom Penh Post report, he also said the vaccination campaign for children aged six and older has been completed, while the inoculation for children aged five has just begun.
"There are four factors that go into determining that we can reopen the country.
"The first factor is that Cambodia successfully achieved its goals for the vaccination drive, for base shots and booster shots. Our booster shots have reached nearly two million people," he said.
Cambodia's vaccination drive reached its targets in just eight month after kicking off in February 2021, which was eight months ahead of the original schedule for completion in mid-2022.
The second factor, he said, was that the government is ready to respond to any future outbreaks of Covid-19 with effective medical treatments including medicines that have now been conclusively determined to be of benefit to Covid-19 patients.
The government has already purchased enough Covid-19 medication from the pharmaceutical company Merck to treat 50,000 people.
The third factor is Cambodia's experience gained in combating and preventing the spread of the virus.
The authorities now understand the disease better and know how to control it and prevent it from spreading on a large scale, Hun Sen said.
"The fourth factor is that our citizens now understand Covid-19 better and know how to protect themselves. They know how to live with Covid-19 in the new normal. They also know how to treat themselves at home for light cases.
"Of these four factors, it is the fourth – the citizen factor – that is the biggest. If we lead the people but they don't listen to us, what can we do? If we have vaccines but our people don't get vaccinated, what can we do?
"If there are no future complications due to other dangerous new variants of Covid-19, then I can assure you all that we are walking away from Covid-19 now in full of confidence," he said.
The vaccination drive for the adult population of 10 million reached its goal on October 31.
Cambodia has also vaccinated almost all children between six and 17 years old.
Overall, the country has now vaccinated 85.68 per cent of the total population of around 16 million.
Hun Sen said Cambodia still has around nine million doses of vaccines in stock and ready to be administered to people – possibly as fourth-dose booster.
But for the time being, he has told his officials to work with Thai authorities to find a way to bring jabs over the border to administer to Cambodia's migrant workers in Thailand.
As of Monday, Cambodia has recorded a total of 118,613 Covid-19 cases and 2,794 fatalities.
Hun Sen said 15,605 of the confirmed cases were of the highly-transmissible Delta variant.
The prime minster also instructed officials at the Ministry of Health to strengthen Cambodia's treatment capacity because the percentage of fatal Covid-19 cases in the country was somewhat high compared to other nations.
He noted that the rate of transmission in Cambodia was at less than one per cent of the total population of around 16 million, but the mortality rate was at 2.35 per cent, which is higher than that of the United States, United Kingdom, India and some other countries.
"This reflects the need to strengthen our provision of treatment. But we should avoid pointing to statistics and saying this or that country has a higher [mortality] number – we don't really have to care as long as we have low transmission rates," he said, according to The Post.