Just over a week after Phnom Penh began a widespread easing of Covid-19 restrictions, Preah Sihanouk province has lifted red zones, Prey Veng is publishing photos of people who tested positive with Covid-19, and some provinces appear not to be releasing new infection numbers at all.
Your guide to Phnom Penh’s Covid-19 red, orange and yellow zones, lockdown rules by zone and which communes fall in which zones.
A survey of vulnerable communities in Phnom Penh has found a large majority of respondents reporting difficulties with food shortages, loss of incomes and feelings of helplessness during the city’s lockdown.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court ordered the “urgent” release of a university student and TV presenter arrested for alleged theft and violence against an oknha — whom she has since accused of attempted rape, sparking a social media outcry.
In Stung Meanchey III commune, about 300 people gathered at a red-zone barricade on Thursday morning to protest and call to be allowed out to get vaccines or withdraw wages from the bank, according to residents.
Police detained an informal-workers union official and placed him in two-week quarantine in Banteay Meanchey province as he was gathering names of members facing economic difficulties amid the nation’s ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
In another case of violence against people linked to the upended opposition CNRP, a Phnom Penh activist was surrounded by four men at a Chroy Changva market and beaten with metal rods in broad daylight.
The government has renewed its promise to give cash aid to low-income people living in the capital’s most restrictive “red zone” lockdown areas, of about $39 to $78 for families and $40 to garment workers, following a string of protests over livelihoods.
A Kampot province port and seaside sand-filling project has gone quiet after the senator leading the project died amid disputes with two marine fishing communities, though the late politician’s assistant says the development has not been abandoned.
The Health Ministry is withholding Covid-19 case details under leaders’ instructions, as they are kept at the provincial level, preparing them nationally could take too long, neighboring countries also give only broad totals, and officials want to do more analysis, a spokesperson said.
Four activists arrested this week are all from environmental group Mother Nature, a rights group has said — as an Interior Ministry official alleged the “rebellious” group was using foreign money to try to topple the government.
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