Cambodia’s Covid-19 numbers appear to be on the decline, but authorities stressed the need for continued vigilance as outbreaks have emerged across the region, and say they are keeping particularly close watch on factories and dense urban areas.
Some provincial authorities are taking extra precautions with the hopes of preventing Covid-19 transmission after the government relaxed lockdowns in Phnom Penh and Takhmao and crowds departed the cities on Thursday.
Following hundreds of arrests, at least 102 people are facing court charges for Covid-19 violations, including more than a dozen put on trial without a lawyer after the accused chose to represent themselves in their misdemeanor cases, according to court officials.
Some residents of locked-down Kandal province villages say they must stay home and are being checked by police and health officers daily after more than 80 Covid-19 cases were found in two days and the district ordered all businesses to close.
The Interior Ministry has said it is investigating an anonymous complaint accusing Takeo provincial deputy police chief Hin Sok Kheng of extortion.
A Takeo fisherman who suffered severe head injuries after allegedly being beaten by fisheries officers died at his family home on Thursday, after almost two weeks lying on a wooden bed unable to speak and his family unable to afford treatment.
A Takeo fisherman, who witnesses say was beaten by fisheries patrol officers and is now near death at his home, was about to drown after jumping into the water and getting struck by a propeller, a Fisheries Administration official said on Wednesday.
Some officials have breached quarantine and traveled outside Phnom Penh, leading the search for indirect Covid-19 contacts of a visiting Hungarian foreign minister to spread to at least seven provinces.
About 50 villagers who say their farmland falls within the planned site of the new Phnom Penh International Airport submitted a petition at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Takhmao City residence on Tuesday to ask for a bigger payout from the airport’s developer.
During the rainy season, rising waters in the rice fields surrounding Takeo’s Koh Andet district provide an ample supply of rodents. As the global economic downturn leaves many jobless, some are turning to catching and exporting rats to make ends meet.
Heng Sreynop says she lives in a red zone in Thailand, and fears Covid-19. She says she understands why the borders need to be closed, but it adds to the pressure. “If we wanted to escape, we couldn’t escape. We don’t know where to escape.”
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