As Covid-19 vaccination progress has slowed down over the last few weeks, Prime Minister Hun Sen has placed the onus on provincial governors to get the campaign back on track, ordering them to report to him directly on the issue and take responsibility before the government on their successes or failures.

In an audio message addressed to all provincial governors late on August 25, Hun Sen singled out Ratanakkiri province for praise because their target for vaccinations was 120,000 people and they had already reached 130,000.

On the other hand, he said some provinces still have not administered first doses to much of their population, mentioning Kampong Chhnang, Tbong Khmum and Pursat.

“I can’t emphasise this enough when I tell you that vaccines must not be tucked away in warehouses until they expire when there are people who have not been vaccinated. I’ve found out that the slow-down in vaccination progress in some localities was due to vaccine supply,” he said.

“Now that we have enough vaccines, we must push them to the right destinations. My order now is that the provincial governors must be the commanders of the vaccination drive in their territory.

“First you have to check if you have enough vaccines. If you don’t have enough, you must make a request to the national Covid-19 vaccination committee and send me a copy for review,” he said.

He told the governors to set aside all non-essential tasks and make combating Covid-19 their top priority because vaccinations are a matter of life or death for the nation.

“My belief is that there’s no lack of vaccines in Cambodia. What we lack, at least partly, are people taking responsibility. We are lacking responsibility in the provinces and there is a lack of responsibility on the part of the national Covid-19 vaccination committee for not pushing harder on this vaccination drive.

“Now, this is my firm order, not a request,” he said.

He told the governors to send him figures on the total population in their province; the number of people vaccinated and those who are eligible for vaccination but haven’t received the jabs; the number of vaccine doses they have available in their warehouses and notes concerning any problems that have interrupted vaccinations or may do so in the future.

Hun Sen noted that the vaccines should be stored at a location in each province so that they can be administered quickly to the population and that the governors can request assistance from the military to use their helicopters to help transport vaccines to remote areas.

“These are my commands to you. The vaccination campaign must not break down again like it has been lately. The provincial governors will be held responsible before the prime minister, the government and the people for their vaccination successes or failures,” he said.

Two provinces – Tbong Khmum and Kampong Chhnang – have nearly half a million people who are not vaccinated, while Pursat still has 800,000 who have not been vaccinated, according to the prime minister.

The number of people aged 18 and up who have been vaccinated reached four million on June 28, five million by July 13, six million on July 19 and seven million on July 28. But the vaccination drive has progressed slowly since then with around 0.3 per cent of the population added to those figures each day, on average.

“My question in recent days is why is it that we had people lined up for the five millionth jab and six millionth jab at such a rapid pace but now when there are enough vaccines finally for everyone the progress on vaccination is so slow,” he questioned.

He stressed that Cambodian people and foreigners alike who are residing in Cambodia can get vaccinated for free anywhere in the country.

“Whoever from wherever – if they are in Cambodia, we will vaccinate all of them without discrimination,” he said.

When asked about his reaction to the prime minister’s orders, Tbong Khmum provincial governor Cheam Chansophorn told The Post that vaccinations in his province had reached just over 50 per cent of the target population.

His province had vaccinated more than 600,000 people aged 12 and over, but there are nearly 300,000 who have yet to receive their first dose.

“The government’s policy is that vaccinations would happen first in the provinces that experience severe transmission and Tbong Khmum just had its first transmission in Suong town in late June, so we really just started our vaccinations in late June,” he said.

His province, he said, also received the vaccines about two weeks later than others, but his administration has been trying hard to accelerate the rate of vaccinations there by raising awareness about it.

“We are working hard on vaccinating our people. Each day, we administer vaccines to more than 10,000 people at more than 60 sites in five districts. We have completed it in some districts both for first and second doses,” Chansophorn said.

He said his province will complete the work soon because there are no shortages of vaccines.

As of August 25, Cambodia had vaccinated 62.95 per cent of the Kingdom’s population of 16 million.