Or Vandine attends the closing ceremony for the vaccination campaign in Kampong Chhnang province. OR VANDINE VIA FACEBOOK
A senior Ministry of Health official said most Covid-19 patients who had died were unvaccinated, while the death of vaccinated people was caused by underlying health problems.
Or Vandine, ministry spokeswoman and head of the national Covid-19 vaccination committee, made the remarks on October 12 at the closing ceremony of the first round of Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Kampong Speu province.
“From our observations, as well as the information we have received, most deceased patients were unvaccinated people. A small number of them had been vaccinated but they had health problems, such as a chronic illness,” she said.
Vandine said this was why people who had not been inoculated need to make a quick decision and get Covid-19 jabs because the unvaccinated are extremely vulnerable to the disease. Unvaccinated individuals may develop more severe symptoms than the vaccinated, she explained.
She said there are certain groups that are refused Covid-19 jabs, at least within a period of time – people with certain illness, Covid-19-infected persons, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
She noted that more than 100,000 people had not been permitted to immediately get vaccinated because they had just recovered from Covid-19.
For pregnant and breastfeeding women, she said they had been cautioned because the effects of vaccines had not been fully understood though the latest studies have shown that they can be vaccinated.
Kampong Speu provincial governor Vei Samnang told The Post on October 12 that more than 90 per cent of people aged six and over in his province had been vaccinated against Covid-19, except for more than 20,000 migrants.
“Of the 19 deaths from Covid-19 in my province, most of them were in poor health and elderly, and most were not vaccinated because of health problems,” he said.
Samnang appealed to people across the country not to believe the propaganda incited by some people regarding vaccinations. For his province, there were no cases where people had not been vaccinated due to incitement.
At a Cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen called for an investigation into those who had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, as there were reports that some people believed the incitement of the opposition.
