Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kandal, Preah Sihanouk, Prey Veng and Siem Reap have been designated as Covid-19 outbreak areas where masks and social distancing are required.
At least 10 taxi and truck drivers have been detained by Sihanoukville authorities while trying to smuggle people out of Preah Sihanouk province in violation of a Covid-19 government travel ban, the provincial administration said.
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.
Prime Minister Hun Sen received the country’s first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday, the morning after calling for either a travel ban or widespread vaccinations in Preah Sihanouk province amid a rise in Covid-19 cases there.
A petition from 258 families asks the Justice Ministry to intervene after the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court ordered a halt to constructions and sales on more than 200 hectares of land claimed by several different parties.
Hundreds of people are in lockdown in a casino in Kandal province and a hotel complex in Sihanoukville as provincial authorities are preparing more treatment and quarantine centers amid the country’s largest Covid-19 outbreak to date.
Military police arrested a former general in the prime minister’s bodyguard unit and nine others who clashed with an investment company over land in a dispute-ridden area of Preah Sihanouk province, local officials said.
Nearly 90 hectares of forested state land in Preah Sihanouk’s Bit Traing commune was privatized late last year and conceded to two private firms, including a company led by a businesswoman who was caught building illegal houses on Koh Kong’s Koh Sdach island.
The Mines and Energy Ministry is seeking bids to dredge sand from more than 2,000 hectares along the coasts of Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk provinces, saying the work is needed to “restore waterways.”
A government sub-decree named the daughter and son-in-law of a CPP senator as the new owners of 600 hectares of land in Preah Sihanouk, claiming the state land and flooded forests were unused and not of public interest. Residents there disagree.
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