As the pandemic spreads through workplaces, income loss and mounting debt are shocking households now and could hold longer-term adverse effects for Cambodia’s economy, according to a series of reports.
Some Cambodian workers are caught in a wave of Covid-19 at their workplaces in Thailand and under pressure to maintain their livelihoods, while many others have fled back to Cambodia to escape the disease and the risk of difficulties in getting treatment or poor deals from employers.
At least one-third of children in the country are not continuing to learn during the school closures, according to a report released earlier this month by Christian aid group World Vision.
An apparent outbreak of hundreds of cases — at a factory where workers say 80 percent were vaccinated — is a reminder that ending the Covid-19 pandemic is not a simple matter, health experts say.
Siem Reap province is seeing a 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew, fines for not wearing masks properly, and lockdowns in targeted areas as precautions over rising Covid-19 case numbers, officials in the province said.
Phnom Penh’s vaccination campaign has reached the city’s last three districts, while provinces are gearing up to be next in line for jabs as the Health Ministry announced it had hit the 3 million mark for first doses out of a target of 10 million people vaccinated nationwide.
Public markets have been allowed to reopen all stalls — not only essential items — in a late-night announcement by Phnom Penh City Hall, as shoppers on Tuesday welcomed a return to relatively normal routines.
Covid-19 outbreaks of hundreds of workers are continuing to hit garment factories in and out of Phnom Penh, as factories navigate whether to suspend operations or keep up production.
Ten to 20 percent of inmates at infected prisons — likely thousands of prisoners — were found with Covid-19, as a prison official said that weeks of concealing the extent of the outbreak was about preventing riots and protecting prison guards.
Poor residents of Phnom Penh, Kandal’s Takhmao city and Sihanoukville have another week to apply for emergency cash aid to alleviate the impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns, the Planning Ministry has announced.
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