The Monkul Oudom Wedding Centre that was temporarily turned into a Covid-19 treatment facility in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district. Heng Chivoan
Ministry of Health secretary of state Ngov Kang said the Covid-19 situation in Cambodia is improving as the infection and mortality rate throughout the country have been in steady decline.
However, despite these promising indicators, the ministry continues to pay close attention to the latest Covid-19 developments, especially the Omicron variant.
“The number of infections and hospitalisations in July, August and September were still high for all types of cases, whether mild, moderate or severe. Then they started decreasing in October, November and now December,” he said on December 7.
As the number of new infections drops, some of the Kingdom’s Covid-19 treatment centres have temporarily suspended operations while the ministry relocates a small number of patients to nearby facilities in order to consolidate staff and resources, reduce costs and make it easier to manage patient care.
Kang said that following the recommendations of Prime Minister Hun Sen, all Covid-19 treatment centres in Phnom Penh that were temporarily housed in buildings borrowed from the private sector will be closed and custody of those properties will be returned to their owners by the end of December or January at the latest.
In Preah Vihear province, Department of Health director Kong Lo said the number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised there had dropped significantly and there were no deaths over the past two weeks.
“Before, we had three treatment facilities and in each centre there were about 200 to 500 Covid-19 patients at any given time. Now we have only one centre open with about 50 beds total and very few patients. We also have two hospital wards for critically ill patients that we continue to maintain in case of emergencies,” he told The Post on December 8.
Lo said the decline came about following the completion of the province’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign, which covered almost 100 per cent of the population in Preah Vihear.
The province also allows Covid-19 patients to treat themselves at home since most of the cases they now encounter are very mild and some of those infected show no symptoms at all.
“Most of the Covid-19 patients who died were elderly and those with chronic health conditions. Many had not been vaccinated or were vaccinated with only one dose. Pregnant women also had a higher mortality rate here. But over the last two weeks, there have been no more deaths,” he said.
“Although the number of infections and patients in treatment has decreased significantly, we will continue to monitor the virus and we ask that people continue to follow the health protection measures,” he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the health ministry and Phnom Penh Municipal Administration to build a large hospital dedicated to Covid-19 and potentially the treatment of other infectious diseases should they occur. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022.
According to Phnom Penh governor Khuong Sreng, the hospital will be constructed in Prek Pnov district’s Kouk Roka commune. It will have a total of 15,000 beds and the facilities to treat all patients whether their case is mild or severe. Sreng and health minister Mam Bun Heng inspected the proposed location on December 7.
Separately on December 7, Singapore donated medical equipment to the health ministry to be used in preventing and responding to Covid-19.
The equipment includes Covid-19 testing machine, one million surgical masks and 200,000 bottles of hand sanitiser.
Health ministry spokeswoman Or Vandine said the new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing machine and the hand sanitiser were given to the provincial health department.
“This important gift really contributes a lot to the fight against Covid-19 and also shows solidarity among ASEAN neighbours,” she said.
