PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia on Thursday confirmed its first death from COVID-19 as the epidemic began a year ago as it fights a new local outbreak that has infected hundreds of people.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that the 50-year-old man was confirmed to be infected last month while working as a driver of a Chinese company in coastal Sihanoukville and died Thursday morning at Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital.
Cambodia has confirmed only 1,163 cases of infection with the disease since the epidemic began, but it has struggled with a new local outbreak that has infected several hundred people.
According to the Ministry of Health, the new outbreak was detected by a foreign resident who broke into quarantine in a hotel and went to a nightclub in early February. It caused a transition and led the government on 20 February, which announced the closure of all public schools, theaters, bars and entertainment areas in Phnom Penh for two weeks.
The government has since closed for schools, gyms, concert halls, museums and other entertainment venues in Phnom Penh, the nearby Kamandal Province and the coastal province of Sihanoukville.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Health said that 39 cases were reported from local transmission.
As the outbreak grows, a dilapidated luxury hotel in the capital has been converted into a 500-room coronavirus hospital and authorities are implementing a new law to impose criminal penalties for violations of health regulations.
The country began its vaccination campaign in February with 600,000 doses of the sugar-produced cyanopharma vaccine. The month also received 324,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was donated and produced in India.
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