Bunong residents in Mondulkiri sue local officials over land encroachment, while PM dismisses rumors of new Covid-19 restrictions.
Commune authorities said on Thursday they would ban dining in at restaurants but allow alcohol sales for drinking at home, as a Phnom Penh councilor explained the need for heightened vigilance against the looming Covid-19 Delta variant despite a lull in local infections.
Kampot has imposed a province-wide curfew and ban on alcohol sales after more than 200 Covid-19 cases were found at a casino along the Vietnamese border, with an official saying there were fears that visitors who were in potential contact had spread across the province.
Phnom Penh City Hall has designated parts of two villages in Pur Senchey and Russei Keo districts as “orange zones,” shutting down travel and businesses in a return to restrictions for a factory area and a dense urban neighborhood.
Some vendors spent Monday cleaning their stalls in anticipation of opening for sales on Tuesday, but amid persistent Covid-19 fears as well as precautions — which restrict reopenings to only sellers of essential foodstuffs — the return of market activity was a trickle rather than a rush.
Phnom Penh’s “red zones,” the areas of the capital with the most restrictive Covid-19 lockdown measures, were removed effective Thursday, leaving most of the city in yellow-designated areas with about a dozen “orange” pockets remaining.
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.
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.
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.
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