Only state media and journalists invited by the government can report in Phnom Penh’s Covid-19 red-zone areas, the Information Ministry said on Monday, explaining that public health was the first priority.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has suggested the country will move toward targeted lockdowns in small areas rather than citywide or provincial-level restrictions, as Phnom Penh’s lockdown nears the end of its third week, according to a government spokesperson.
Another 100 people in a Phnom Penh red-zone commune protested for food aid Friday morning, saying they were fast running out of food, only hours after a separate group nearby made similar demands.
Phnom Penh continues to see the bulk of new cases: 2,934 were announced in the past week. And Pur Senchey and Meanchey districts remain the worst-hit areas in the capital, recording 852 and 656 new cases for the week, according to City Hall data compiled by VOD.
Orn Ratha, 23, a resident of Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmey commune, says he feels liberated after his area entered “yellow”-level lockdown from Thursday.
UPDATED April 30 — Phnom Penh City Hall added two villages in Toul Kork district to its list of red zones and two villages in the same district to orange as of April 29.
UPDATED 11:48 a.m. — The government has extended Phnom Penh and Takhmao city’s lockdowns until May 5, it announced in a decision issued late Monday.
Tens of thousands of workers in Phnom Penh’s worker dormitories say they concerned about Covid-19, but also strained by hunger and boredom a week into their homes becoming “red zones.”
All public and informal markets in Phnom Penh are to be closed from Saturday, City Hall has announced, though some remained open — and were drawing many shoppers — as of the morning.
Just over 100 people were arrested and fined in Phnom Penh in one day as authorities introduced canes for beating lockdown violators, a police official said on Wednesday.
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