The government will temporarily suspend flights from the Philippines starting Thursday after 13 passengers arriving from the ASEAN country tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health reported 15 new imported Covid-19 cases, with the other two patients arriving from the US via Taiwan.

A ministry press release on Tuesday said Prime Minister Hun Sen had decided to temporarily suspend flights from the Philippines because among ASEAN members, no country has recorded more Covid-19 infections.

On Monday, the Philippine Ministry of Health reported 6,958 new cases, the highest number of daily cases to be recorded by the country. It brought the total number of cases to 136,638. The Philippines also recorded 24 deaths due to Covid-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,293.

The country’s capital, Manila, and its surrounding areas have been closed again to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The flight which arrived from the Philippines on Sunday carried 119 Chinese passengers, including the 13 Chinese nationals who tested positive.

Two Cambodian females who also arrived on Sunday from the US via Taiwan tested positive, including a 13-year-old girl. They were among 72 passengers on the flight which departed the US.

The government previously suspended flights from Indonesia and Malaysia after noticing a large number of Covid-19 cases being imported from the two countries.

Hun Sen announced on Sunday that Covid-19 continued to threaten lives and economies throughout the world. But he confirmed that the situation in Cambodia was not as serious as there had yet to be community transmission in the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Health has reiterated its calls on people to take precautionary measures to prevent human-to-human transmission as the five-day replacement holiday for Khmer New Year approaches next week.

In a press release, it said another Covid-19 patient has been discharged from hospital, bringing the total number of recoveries to 220.