National Assembly (NA) president Heng Samrin on January 17 called on all Cambodians to get vaccinated against Covid-19, especially the highly transmissible Omicron variant which has begun spreading in the community.

The call came as he and his wife, along with NA members, received their fourth dose.

He said the pandemic has disrupted socio-economic activities in the Kingdom and the world alike, causing great difficulties to the daily lives of individuals.

“So, in order to avoid those difficulties again, please get vaccinated and adhere to health measures thoroughly. We must not neglect them. Only with the participation of all of us can we protect our families and our society, and overcome Covid-19,” he said.

Samrin also thanked “friendly nations” and development partners for providing financial assistance, vaccines and scientific equipment to Cambodia to curb the spread and protect the peoples’ lives from Covid-19.

In the past 10 days, there have been no deaths reported from the virus, although imported and community cases of the Omicron variant are detected every day.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in December that Cambodia’s efforts to vaccinate its people was a strategy to protect the lives of the people and to speed up recovery of socio-economic activity.

He added that for Cambodia, preventive measures including the three dos and three don’ts were still in place. Guided by the national Covid-19 vaccination committee, he said health measures had been well implemented.

According to the Ministry of Health, as of January 16 more than 4.6 million people had been vaccinated with the third dose, or booster shot, nationwide. And during the three-day fourth-dose vaccination campaign that began on January 14, more than 66,000 people were vaccinated.