Prime Minister Hun Sen during his virtual meeting with his Indian Narendra Modi on May 19. SPM
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his congratulations to Cambodia for its success in combating Covid-19, as the country reported zero cases for 12 consecutive days.
Modi made the remarks at a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen on May 18, where the latter also applauded India for its success in its fight against Covid-19. He said the South Asian country’s case numbers had fallen dramatically, according to his Facebook post published shortly after the meeting.
Hun Sen thanked India for its April 12 delivery of 325,000 vaccine doses to Cambodia, saying it illustrated India’s solidarity, according to his Facebook post published shortly after the meeting.
Modi was quoted as saying: “We are very pleased to be able to assist Cambodia, the first country in this framework to receive the vaccine from India, and we are pleased to hear that Cambodia has not had Covid-19 cases in these [12] days. India has striven to help itself and help people around the world.”
He added that India has now provided the vaccines to nearly 100 countries, and had participated in the training of more than 2,000 Cambodian government officials in various fields. He announced that the Indian government will be providing 1,000 scholarships to train ASEAN citizens in information technology.
Separately, Or Vandine, Ministry of Health spokeswoman and head of the National Covid-19 vaccination committee, announced additional vaccination sites, to be overseen by volunteer health workers from the Samdech Techo Voluntary Youth Doctor Association (TYDA).
In a notification dated May 18, Vandine said the new vaccination sites, where 400 TYDA volunteers are due to administer the doses, were added to speed up the third and fourth doses for students at public and private schools in Phnom Penh.
Back on May 3, during a meting with students who attained ‘A’ grades in their high school exams, Hun Sen announced that students were one of the new priority groups for vaccination, after civil servants, teachers, health workers and the armed forces.
He said this designation was made “in order to guarantee the safety of our students”.
According to the health ministry, as of May 18, more than nine million people had received a third dose while over two million gotten their fourth.
