Health spokesperson confirms two remaining COVID-19 patients in good health but is the first wave over?

Health spokesperson confirms two remaining COVID-19 patients in good health but is the first wave over?

The two remaining active cases of COVID-19 have shown no noticeable signs and are all in good health, said Dr. Ly Sovann, Director of the Communicable Disease Control Department (CDC) of the Ministry of Health.

They need to be tested negative twice consecutively to be able to be discharged, added Dr. Ly Sovann, also a Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, hoping that they will recover soon.

The spokesperson re-appealed to the people to keep their vigilance even though there was no new case of COVID-19 for 20 days in a row by following the instructions of the Royal Government as well as the Ministry of Health such as practicing good hygiene, avoiding gathering and crowded places, staying at home, wearing facemasks and so on.

Dr. Ly Sovann also expressed his concerns over possible second wave of infections hitting Cambodia by taking the case of Singapore as an example.

As of this morning, the total confirmed cases in Cambodia remain at 122, of them 120 were successfully cured.

While Cambodia has shown remarkable progress in the combat against COVID-19 cases, the mixed messaging emerging from the Ministry of Health is not very comforting, medical practitioners said.

The practitioners, who declined identity for fear of reprisal said “If indeed for 19 straight days there were no new cases, why hasn’t the government relaxed some rules such as partial reopening of businesses where social distancing can be practiced to kick start the struggling economy.

“In addition, there has been lack of transparency. How many cases tested and how many tests? What happened to the various contact tracing done on several condo blocks in Koh Pick and BKK 1? Why have some businesses where there is no social distancing opened and why many other activities like night clubs behind locked doors, ktv sessions, also behind locked doors and other activities allowed to occur?

“The authorities are aware and have cracked down but what is the result of the tests on these people? As we all know a large number of foreigners were the ones infected the COVID-19 and the groups involved in most of these activities are from some portion of these category yet they had two of the least number of infected cases,” they said and stressed that notices put up by the condo blocks affected by quarantine measures have been widely circulated in social media. C. Nika/AKP/Khmer Times