Exiled opposition politician Sam Rainsy urged Cambodians to receive the currently available Chinese vaccines to protect themselves from Covid-19, though Prime Minister Hun Sen doubted Rainsy’s sincerity amid a global vaccine shortage.
Three men have been released — with possible fines on the way — after their arrest on Sunday for meeting up to drink and sing through loudspeakers despite Phnom Penh’s ban on gatherings amid a Covid-19 outbreak.
Three men drinking and singing through loudspeakers in a rented room in Phnom Penh late Sunday afternoon have been arrested for allegedly violating the city’s Covid-19 measures, which include a requirement for social distancing in all public and private areas except for people who live together and certain other exemptions.
Three former opposition CNRP youth members have defected to the ruling party, including a woman who previously presented the nightly news on party co-founder Sam Rainsy’s Facebook page and, according to Rainsy, had received refugee status after fleeing to Thailand to escape incitement and plotting charges.
Newly arrived Sinovac vaccines will be given to 745,000 preregistered people, mostly government officials, doctors and employees at selected workplaces, starting Thursday, the Health Ministry said.
A prisons official acknowledged that social distancing was impossible in the country’s overcrowded cells, but said officers were maintaining hygiene, checking prisoners for fevers and quarantining new arrivals for two weeks as Covid-19 prevention measures.
The Health Ministry reiterated Thursday that social distancing, masks, washing hands and avoiding large gatherings are still necessary despite vaccinations to stem the spread of Covid-19, after three soldiers tested positive despite receiving inoculations.
Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered border authorities to send new arrivals coming in through land borders straight to their home provinces to quarantine if they aren’t showing symptoms, as one border province said it was struggling to feed the thousands of people in quarantine while returnees increased.
Representatives of the U.S., E.U., U.K. and Australia this week raised concerns over the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentencing nine CNRP opposition leaders to 20 to 25 years in prison for a planned “attack” on the state.
Amid mass migrant worker arrivals and overcrowding quarantine centers at the Thai and Vietnamese borders, a senior National Police official said authorities over the past two weeks had arrested more than 100 brokers who facilitated illegal border crossings.
Cambodia’s Culture Ministry called out Vice News and a photo editing company after the media outlet featured photos of S-21 prisoners edited to have smiling faces, which Khmer Rouge survivors and family members called traumatizing.
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