Cambodian and Chinese officials on April 19 held a virtual handover ceremony of a Covid-19 testing machine donated by China’s Yunnan province for use in Preah Sihanouk and the provinces in its vicinity.

The video conference was held in the presence of Minister of Health Mam Bun Heng, Preah Sihanouk governor Kuoch Chamroeun and Chinese ambassador Wang Wentian, among others.

Bun Heng said: “The Cambodia-China friendship has reached comprehensive strategic level. Grants in various from China have been provided to the health ministry to strengthen and expand the capacity of Cambodia's health sector.”

He said in an effort to fight covid-19, china had provided Cambodia with many equipment worth approximately $10 million and 3.3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, 1.3 million of which were provided as donations.

Preah Sihanouk governor Chamroeun said a 458sqm laboratory facility worth $279,000 had been completely constructed to house the Covid-19 testing machine, known as Nucleic Acid Testing Laboratory.

With the China-donated machine, he said samples collected in Preah Sihanouk and neighbouring provinces for Covid-19 testing would no longer need to be sent to Phnom Penh.