PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodia’s last patient with the new coronavirus has recovered and left hospital, leaving the Southeast Asian country with zero cases, the health ministry said on Saturday, while urging continued vigilance.
No easing of restrictions related to the virus – including school closures and border entry checks and quarantines – were included in the Ministry of Health statement.
Cambodia has reported 122 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 and no deaths from the disease since it emerged in China and started spreading around the world, infecting more than 4.5 million and killing about 300,000 since January.
A 36-year-old woman from Cambodia’s northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey was released from the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, and was presented to the media in a livestream on Saturday, thanking the health authorities.
Cambodia’s last reported new case was on April 12. A total of 14,684 tests have been done since January, the ministry said.
Health Minister Mam Bunheng urged people to remain vigilant and take precautions such as not gathering in large groups.
“We think that most of the cases, generally, are imported, so we must be careful with all checkpoints at the border, at airports, at ports, at land checkpoints,” Mam Bunheng told reporters.
“People who travel from abroad must have a certificate confirming that they don’t have COVID-19. Only then would we allow them in, and once they are in, they will be quarantined for another 14 days,” he said.
(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul. Editing by Kay Johnson; Editing by William Mallard)
