Kandal province closed the vaccination campaign for people aged 18 and over on September 8, making it the first province to end the programme, with nearly 100 per cent of the targeted population vaccinated and about 1.5 per cent remaining unvaccinated.

The closing ceremony was organised at Chey Chumneas referral hospital in Takhmao town, presided over by provincial governor Kong Sophorn.

Speaking during the ceremony, Sophorn said 852,633 people or 98.47 per cent of 865,915 people had been vaccinated. Unvaccinated individuals account for 13,282 people or 1.53 per cent.

He said for people aged 12-18, a total of 143,380 have been vaccinated from 143,859 or 99.67 per cent. Only 0.33 per cent or 479 people remain unvaccinated.

While Kandal is the first province to close its vaccination programme, Phnom Penh had completed vaccinations on July 8.

“In general, a total of 996,013 people aged 12 and over have been vaccinated or 98.64 per cent of 1,009,774 people. Only 13,761 or 1.4 per cent remain,” he said.

Sophorn said the province still provides vaccinations to those who did not receive a shot during the campaign for whatever reason, especially pregnant women and returning migrant workers. Vaccinations are available at any of the 11 district referral hospitals in the province.

“We are proud to have completed the vaccination campaign, but we have to continue maintaining prevention measures because the vaccine can [only] reduce severe symptoms of the disease, hospitalisation and death.

“Covid still can infect your body and you can transmit it to people around you,” he said.

Head of the national vaccination programme Or Vandine, who is also the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, attended the ceremony. She said vaccinations for the 12-18 age group continues in the provinces as many people still have to receive a second dose. She urged the vaccination work to speed up.

“We are relieved [with the outcome] for people aged 18 and older, but we still have to complete our work for the 12-18 age group. We have to finish it quickly in order for students to return to school very soon with less fear,” Vandine said.

Vandine urged healthy pregnant women and those who had recently delivered a baby and are in good health to get vaccinated.

As of September 7, more than 9.6 million people aged 18 and over have been vaccinated nationwide of the targeted 10 million.

Vaccinations for the 12-18 age group has reached more than 1.6 million of the estimated 2 million people to get shots.

Cambodia is also providing booster shots to fully vaccinated individuals. As of September 7, nearly 700K people had received the booster jab.