Health Minister Mam Bun Heng visited the foreigner who has coronary disease at Kampong Cham. Photo supplied
Minister in charge of the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Mao Havanall said on Wednesday that China will share its experience of Covid-19 to stop its spread in Cambodia.
The SSCA Facebook page said the request was made when Havanall met with Zuo Wenxing the political counsellor at the Chinese embassy to Cambodia.
It said Zuo had responded willingly and shared valuable information on managing and preventing Covid-19, especially at international airports and while in flight.
SSCA spokesman Sin Chan Sereivutha said during the meeting, both sides discussed methods to prevent Covid-19 and Zuo highlighted China’s success in the measures it had taken in Wuhan (the epicentre of the coronavirus), Hubei province, and across China.
The measures China had taken, he said, resulted in a remarkable decline in new cases and evidenced that China had taken control of the disease.
Havanall told Zuo that the SSCA had worked with care, and was appealing to all airports and airline companies to practice good hygiene to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
He said medical officials from the Ministry of Health had checked the temperatures of all those passing through Cambodian airports.
“At the meeting, the minister requested that China share its experience and information on the best practises to preventing the spread of Covid-19,” Chan Sereivutha said.
The meeting with Zuo was organised in collaboration with the SSCA and the Ministry of Health.
On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy posted on its website that combating Covid-19 in China had come from cooperation between virus experts, doctors and military officials.
It said they had taken part in combating the virus at the front line “courageously and bravely”.
“While stopping Covid-19 in China, the country also provided detection reagent and prevention materials to other countries. We also shared treatment procedures and sent volunteer experts to other countries,” it said.
Meanwhile, Kampong Cham provincial health department head Sour Phirum said Minister of Health, Mam Bun Heng on Wednesday visited the 65-year-old British woman who contracted Covid-19 from a Vietnamese passenger who sat beside her while on a flight from England to Vietnam.
The woman entered Cambodian territory when she was among 64 other passengers and crew on the Viking Cruise Journey cruise ship that travelled from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Kampong Cham province in the Kingdom.
All of the passengers are under strict quarantine on the ship itself and have not been allowed to disembark pending health checks for Covid-19.
“The British woman’s health is normal and she is being kept in quarantine. None of the other passengers had any symptoms, but they are being quarantined for the required 14 days, and their health is being monitored closely as well,” he said.
Ministry spokesperson Or Vandine said shortly after Bun Heng’s visit, the British Embassy in Cambodia requested the woman be transferred from the Kampong Cham Hospital to another in Phnom Penh for treatment and to facilitate the provision of assistance to her.
The woman is said to be disabled and uses a prosthetic leg.
Vandine said that before agreeing to transfer her to Phnom Penh, the ministry had discussed the matter in detail with the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control.
Ly Sovann, the director of the Communicable Disease Control Department said on his Facebook page on Wednesday evening that the British woman was in good health with minimum to zero symptoms.
“Those who came into contact with her included an interpreter, a tuk-tuk driver and his daughter. They have all since tested negative for Covid-19,” he said.
