Of the 1,802 inmates in Kampong Speu provincial prison, more than 100 have now tested positive for Covid-19 with one death confirmed on May 29, according to Kampong Speu provincial governor Vei Samnang in his remarks to The Post on June 1.

Samnang said Covid-19 began circulating in the prison about a week ago and managed to quickly infect 100 inmates in a brief period of time.

“One inmate has died. She was very old and she had a lot of underlying medical problems, so when she was infected with Covid-19 it caused her death,” he said.

The woman, 66, passed away on May 29 and due to her various underlying illnesses there was little the medical staff could do to help her, Samnang said.

The governor said the outbreaks that often occurred in prisons in all nations were due to the inability to maintain social distance between inmates.

“But what we have done is we have separated them as best we can. The group infected with Covid-19 we put in one place and the group of people who had contact with them are in another. And the group of detainees who were not in contact with the Covid-19 positive ones are in another area,” he said.

“We are now continuing our outreach efforts in prisons in terms of hygiene, bathing and frequent hand washing with soap. For inmates who have contracted the virus, our medical personnel have been using traditional Chinese medicine to treat them along with vitamin C and other drugs,” he said.

General Department of Prisons spokesman Nuth Savna declined to comment.