February 20 Community Event Cambodia, 10 months, 120,416 infected cases, 3,005 deaths,19857 imported cases and now Omicron
February 20 Community Event Cambodia, 10 months, 120,416 infected cases, 3,005 deaths,19857 imported cases and now Omicron
ronically, this came on the eve of the very infamous and deadly 10 months anniversary of the deadly February 20 Community Event, caused by four Chinese escapees from what was considered a highly secure five star hotel, the Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh.
The health secretary of state made the remark in a message on social media on Dec. 19, after Cambodia detected two more cases of Omicron COVID variant.
“It is a year to learn how to live with COVID-19 virus, especially Omicron and other possible virus mutation,” she wrote, calling on people to be vigilant and be prepared for any surge.
Dr Vandine was also convinced that people will continue to follow the “3 Dos, 3 Don’ts” measure and to get vaccinated against the pandemic, which will protect them from severity, hospitalisation and death.
Cambodia has so far reported four Omicron cases – three Cambodian women aged 23, 33, 47 years old returning from Ghana, France and the U.S., and a 25-year-old Iranian man travelling from Kenya.
What led to the crisis which saw the Government making swift drastic decisions on lockdowns, curfews, movement restrictions, inter provisional travel bans, declaration of red zones, ban on flights from certain countries and so forth.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first imported case in Cambodia was detected in Sihanoukville on 27 January 2020.
Although a number of imported cases and transmission to direct contacts were confirmed throughout 2020, no community transmission was detected until 29 November 2020. In 2020, total number of cases totalled just less then 500. There were no deaths. There were no lockdowns.
But all these changed on the fateful day on February 20 when Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on live television the outbreak of the COVID-19 within the community in Cambodia and which spread like wildfire.
The first real scare was on November 29, 2020 when the first community transmission cluster was detected in Phnom Penh with the virus suspected to have entered the country sometime during October and circulated undetected
By July 2021, Phnom Penh has been the most affected province with the majority of infections and deaths. Banteay Meanchey has the second-highest number of infections, whereas Kandal has second-highest number of deaths.
They still hold this infamous records to date.
Now it is 10 tough months, full of challenges, thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of cases and a crippled economy.
Ten months ago, the Infamous February 20 Community Event changed the face of Cambodia and COVID-19 when it took firm root and wrecked havoc across the country. It started with four Chinese nationals who escaped quarantine from Sokha Hotel, four security guards who took bribes and allowed the escape and the rest became infamous history.
It started with four Chinese nationals who escaped quarantine from Sokha Hotel, four security guards who took bribes and allowed the escape and the rest became infamous history with the case and death tally stated in the headlines.
The public health response was led by the Ministry of Health with support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and Institute Pasteur du Cambodge. Contact tracing, quarantining, screening of arrivals and public messaging related to hygiene, social distancing and mask wearing have been central to the containment strategy.
According to Global Health Security Index’s report in 2019, Cambodia ranked 89th out of 195 countries in preparedness for infectious disease outbreak.
Cambodia’s initial response was slow – during the initial outbreak in China, few international travel restrictions were introduced, Cambodian citizens were not evacuated from Wuhan and Prime Minister Hun Sen rightly downplayed the threat as reported by Wikipedia.
The country began its vaccination programme and soon after, detected its largest outbreak to date in February 2021, the February 20 Community Event which changed the face of COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia.
Cambodia reported its first death on 11 March 2021. As Lineage B.1.1.7 spread in the capital’s markets and garment factories, a curfew was later strengthened to the country’s first lockdown across the entirety of Phnom Penh and Takhmau in April 2021 as the WHO warned Cambodia’s healthcare system was at risk of becoming overwhelmed. Provincial authorities later introduced restrictions elsewhere as outbreaks occurred.
However, Cambodia fought back with what some viewed, as Human Rights Organisations, as overly extreme measures. Cambodia, to her credit, persisted with the so called extreme measures, deployed the army medical corps to undertake vaccinations in locked down red zones in the capital, achieving up to 500,000 a day on some days.
By August, the signs were there Cambodia had managed to bring the virus under control despite the Delta Variant becoming the dominant variant in Cambodia. Borders wee reopened with Thailand, allowing the inflows of migrant Cambodian workers fleeing Thailand.
On October 8, Mr Hun Sen announced that Cambodia will be capable of reopening its economy across all sectors if the Covid-19 situation post Pchum Ben remains stable at current levels for at least 10 consecutive days, saying:
“If the situation remains as it is for the next 10 to 15 days, then I think it is time to reopen the economy, and society, across all sectors under the new normal concept.”
Economic activities resumed soon after and soon, the whole country was re opened and flights started to increase, very slowly but surely. Last week, the first tourists landed by flight from Singapore in more than a year.
Hotels which were closed cumulatively for almost a year, began to reopen their doors and looked at resumption of full services in stages.
By December 19, 14,225,712 Cambodians out of an estimated 16 million Cambodians have been vaccinated, of which close to 13.6 million have been fully vaccinated and slightly more than 3 million have received the third booster dose.
Not bad for a country which was ranked 89th out of 195 countries in preparedness for infectious disease outbreak.
Cambodia did better than most other developed countries not only in the region but the world and even donated assistance to Vietnam, Nepal, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Timor Leste. That is Cambodia – a small country with a big heart. Khmer Times/Wikipedia
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