Two more foreign nationals have tested positive for the Covid-19 respiratory disease in Cambodia, bringing the nation’s total number of cases to seven, the Health Ministry said late Friday.
A 49-year-old Canadian man and 33-year-old Belgian man tested positive on Friday and have been quarantined at Phnom Penh’s Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, the ministry said in a statement.
Officials were searching for people who have had contact with the two men, the ministry added.
The pair had not been aboard a Mekong river cruise ship, whose passengers this week were quarantined on land after three British passengers, two women and a man, tested positive for the respiratory disease.
The ministry said Thursday that the 61 other passengers and crew from the Viking river cruise ship were being quarantined for a two-week period in a hotel in Kampong Cham province, where the ship docked.
Among the U.K. nationals, a 73-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife were transferred to Khmer-Soviet hospital on Thursday. As of Friday, the couple had no symptoms and their condition was normal, the Health Ministry said.
Health officials have identified six people who had direct contact with people aboard the ship, four of whom have tested negative, while the two others are awaiting test results.
Of the 179 people found to have had indirect contact, 35 were considered at “medium risk,” and tested negative for the virus, the ministry said.
Officials confirmed last week that one Cambodian had tested positive for Covid-19. He was put in quarantine in a Siem Reap hospital.
The virus has infected more than 125,000 people globally and been linked to more than 4,600 deaths, the majority in China where the new viral strain was first detected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The disease has spread to about 100 nations worldwide.
