Cambodia’s latest Covid-19 deaths include a 38-year-old Cambodian DJ who was found to be positive just over a week before he died on Thursday, and a 43-year-old Chinese man with a registered address at a Kandal casino who tested positive two weeks ago.
Tenants of a Phnom Penh condominium complex spoke of daily life and frustrations during a monthlong Covid-19 lockdown, just as restrictions were lifted late Friday for most of the 800 people stuck inside. One floor remains locked down following a positive test two weeks ago.
Cambodia reported its second death from Covid-19 on Friday, eight days after its first official death was announced on March 11 and about a month into the largest community outbreak the country has seen.
All Covid-19 cases genetically sequenced in the ongoing “February 20” outbreak in Cambodia — which has seen more than 1,000 patients total — have been the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant, believed to be the only variant currently circulating in Cambodia, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Phnom Penh said Thursday.
Cambodia has confirmed its first death from Covid-19, a Health Ministry statement said on Thursday, with a spokesperson saying the man had been put on a ventilator for two days.
The “February 20” Covid-19 outbreak is fanning out in the provinces, with a village of 300 households in Kandal province locked down, schools closed in parts of Siem Reap and Prey Veng, and parties, weddings and other gatherings suspended in Kampong Speu.
Covid-19 patients in Cambodia have been treated with hydroxychloroquine, a health official said, even though medical researchers last year dismissed the drug as a treatment for Covid-19, and the WHO this week said it should not be used to prevent or treat coronavirus.
More than 700 out of 5,000 workers at a Phnom Penh garment factory have been tested after a single Covid-19 case was found among employees, but work continues in eight of nine buildings and crowds keep packing the factory grounds during breaks.
A Chinese man with Covid-19 died in quarantine in Phnom Penh on Thursday, the Health Ministry said, but ruled his death “due to drug overdose” after an autopsy. In a Facebook post, the ministry further clarified that “there was no drug use” and the death was caused by serious withdrawal symptoms and not Covid-19.
Preah Sihanouk suspended transport in and out of the province, while authorities on Thursday extended school closures, and Prime Minister Hun Sen said the “February 20” Covid-19 outbreak could last past Khmer New Year next month.
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