The Health Ministry said it carried out 2,621 further tests on Monday into a cluster of Covid-19 cases centered around the wife of the country’s prisons director, and found three new cases.
A rights monitor questioned the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision to last week hold a mass trial of opposition supporters as the court announced that trials for defendants in the capital’s prisons will be postponed through at least December 14 amid Covid-19 fears.
UPDATED 6 p.m. — The Education Ministry has announced the school year is called off for public schools amid the emergence of a new cluster of coronavirus cases over the weekend.
UPDATED 11:30 a.m. — The total number of Covid-19 cases in the cluster around prisons chief Chhem Savuth has reached 14 due to local transmission, following more than 3,000 samples taken across the country, authorities said.
UPDATED 5:45 p.m. — The country’s prisons director, his wife and four of their family members have tested positive for Covid-19 with the source of their infection unknown, and Phnom Penh’s Aeon Mall I has been temporarily closed following a visit by the director’s wife, the Health Ministry said Sunday morning.
UPDATED 1 p.m. — Prime Minister Hun Sen has emerged from quarantine as ministries issued a raft of orders to lift restrictions on various gatherings and facilities two weeks after a visiting diplomat sparked a Covid-19 scare in the country.
The Health Ministry announced Monday morning that no new positive Covid-19 cases were found from 1,352 tests over the weekend of a cluster of suspected contacts of Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who visited the country nearly two weeks ago.
After a visit by Hungary’s foreign minister, his shirking of health protocols and subsequent renewed Covid-19 closures and quarantines, the initial public fury has had time to settle. Now, we need to focus on testing, transparency and taking precautions seriously, writes Matt Surrusco.
An assistant to Prime Minister Hun Sen told a local media outlet that he didn’t know he was supposed to be in quarantine as he visited coastal areas — causing dozens to go into quarantine — despite being an indirect contact to a visiting diplomat who tested positive for Covid-19 after leaving the country.
Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn on Thursday defended his Hungarian counterpart — noting Hungary’s past political support — amid an online backlash against the foreign diplomat after his visit to Cambodia last week spurred renewed Covid-19 closures and some 1,700 people being tested and quarantined.
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