Category: Health Protection

Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has announced to return home this evening after being found positive for COVID-19 in Indonesia.
“For the safety of the delegates attending the meeting (G20 Summit), I decided that the Cambodian delegation have to return home,” he wrote on his official Facebook page this morning. “For the representative of ASEAN (at G20 Summit), we are negotiating to hand over (the representation) to Indonesia.”
The Cambodian Premier said that before leaving Cambodia, he took a rapid test every day, especially before taking the flight, but the result is always negative.
“I’m not sure when I got infected, but what is clear is that when I arrived, the Indonesian doctor took my sample in the evening and in the morning, I was confirmed positive for COVID-19, even though there is no suspected symptom,” he continued.
Fortunately, he said, last night as he arrived late, he missed the dinner with some Heads of State/Government hosted by the French president.
In the same message, Samdech Techo Hun Sen also expressed his regret that he will not be able to meet with the Chinese and French Presidents in Bangkok during the APEC Leaders’ Informal Dialogue as planned.
Samdech Techo Prime Minister said he plans to return to Cambodia this evening with normal symptoms and he will continue to work normally except receiving guests.
A high-level Cambodian delegation led by Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen left here yesterday afternoon for the G20 Summit and the APEC Leaders’ Informal Dialogue in Indonesia and Thailand, respectively until Nov. 18.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press

Highlights
• UNICEF provided access to primary health care for 2,267,454 children and women and vaccinated 25,587,554 children against measles.
• 312,127 children and caregivers were supported in accessing mental health and psychosocial support and 42,668 women, girls and boys in accessing gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention or response interventions.
• UNICEF supported 326,854 schools to implement safe school protocols and 5,573,247 children with access to formal or non-formal education.
• UNICEF also provided 1,168,371 children with safe and appropriate WASH facilities and hygiene services in learning facilities and safe spaces.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

In Numbers
283 mt of food distributed
US$ 128,000 cash distributed to schools
US$ 357,085 six-month (October 2022 – March 2023) net funding requirements
213,000 people assisted
Operational Updates
School Feeding Programme (SFP)
• To facilitate national government ownership of the SFP, WFP is working closely with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and the National Social Protection Council (NSPC) to prepare related policy, technical support, capacity building and programme operational framework. This month, the Government confirmed to increase its school feeding budget to cover 137 additional schools in the next academic year, covering a total of 427 schools under the national programme.
• As part of its commitment to providing technical and capacity strengthening support to the national SFP, WFP organized a workshop to finalise and endorse the draft theory of change and an accompanying monitoring and evaluation framework. Two government officials from MoEYS and NSPC will attend the 23rd Annual Global Child Nutrition Forum in Benin in late October for a cross-country exchange on school feeding operations.
• At school level, to strengthen monitoring and record management capacities, WFP delivered 17 cluster trainings and in-person coaching to storekeepers and data entry focal points in five provinces. The training enabled participants to properly file and verify stock records and documents for data accuracy, consistency and completeness and use the school feeding information system for better recording and reporting purposes. Currently, 823 schools are utilising the skills to complete the quarterly progress reports and submitted to the provincial education department for financial clearance.
• At district level, the Provincial Departments and District Offices of Agriculture, with WFP’s support, conducted a series of trainings to build capacities of smallholder farmers and suppliers in seven districts on safe and diverse food production and post-harvest handling. A total of 233 producers and suppliers (70 percent women) participated in the trainings.

Source: World Food Programme

Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen announced in Battambang province this morning that Cambodia has detected zero COVID-19 case for four consecutive days.
Addressing to the distribution ceremony of rice seeds to more than 10,000 flood-affected families in Battambang province, Samdech Techo Hun Sen said after recording no new case for 52 days in a row, Cambodia faced the outbreak of Omicron variant, but now it is under control, and today is the 4th day without new COVID-19 case.
Anyway, Samdech Techo Hun Sen reiterated his appeal to his compatriots to continue to pay attention to the pandemic by reminding them of the health preventive measures and encouraging them to get vaccinated to create a strong herd immunity.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press

Cambodia was placed fourth in the latest edition of Nikkei’s COVID-19 Recovery Index.
Cambodia had early success in managing the coronavirus one year into the pandemic, but was then hit hard by the delta variant in the middle of 2021, when the Kingdom had barely started mass inoculations, said the source, adding that this forced the country to impose draconian measures, including lockdowns.
Nevertheless, it continued, Cambodia successfully expedited its inoculation drive. It earned a score of 29 for vaccinations in the latest index. The Royal Government has dropped COVID-related restrictions and fully reopened to international tourists, leading to brighter economic outlooks. In its latest economic forecast, the World Bank raised Cambodia’s annual growth prediction to 4.8 percent from 4.5 percent.
The Kingdom’s neighbour, Vietnam, came in 8th in the index, Malaysia 38th and Thailand 70th, while Laos ranked 89th and the Philippines 101st.
Qatar topped the list followed by Bahrain and Rwanda.
Nikkei’s index assesses 121 countries and regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility. A higher ranking indicates a more advanced recovery, characterised by lower infection and death rates, better inoculation coverage and fewer restrictions on movement.
According to Nikkei, the ranking was first published in July 2021. October’s edition of the index will be the final installment, as some data sources will soon cease to be updated. Various countries’ changing guidelines for testing and reporting have also made it difficult to secure data for an accurate assessment.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press