Cambodia Crosses 12M of Its Population Vaccinated against COVID-19 Mark

Cambodia Crosses 12M of Its Population Vaccinated against COVID-19 Mark

A total of 12,049,739 people has been vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least one dose of the life saving vaccine as of September 19.

Vaccination campaigns began in Cambodia on 10 February for adults aged 28 and above, August 1 for adolescents aged 12 to 17 and for children aged six to 12 on September 17.

Booster or 3rd dose of the vaccine to increase immunity started in early August as well.

Of this, those who have been fully vaccinated, receiving both doses of the vaccine stands at 10,304,104.

Cambodia is now aiming to vaccinate some 14,500,00- people against COVID-19 as they have sufficient vaccines either on order or already delivered.

Cambodia had initially targeted 10 million people, comprising adult population aged 18 and above.

This was later amended to 12 million people to include adolescents aged 12 to 17 and now pushed further forward by vaccinating children from the age of six to 12. This pushed the numbers to be vaccinated to more than 14.5 million or at least 91 percent of the total population.

In addition, Cambodia is also looking at vaccinating children as young as three to six years old to build up as much immunity as possible to prepare the population against any new mutations or prevent new mutations of virus from entering Cambodian society.

Cambodia has also vaccinated diplomatic corps members, including third booster doses to soon, as well as expatriates and foreigners living and working in Cambodia and who can provide a valid passport and working permit.

Cambodia has so far got some 29.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from purchases and donations: 7.8 million doses of Sinopharm, 19 million doses of Sinovac, 1,739,000 doses of AstraZeneca, and 1,064,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson.

Besides the inoculation of children from 6 to under 12 years old, the Kingdom has currently been conducting three other COVID-19 vaccination campaigns: for the 18 years old and up which has achieved 98.27 percent, the 12 to under 18 years old 88 percent, and the 3rd dose or booster dose for already 83o,814 people.

It is however, critical to note that crossing the 12 million vaccinated mark breaks through a phycological barriers in Cambodia’s efforts to achieve herd immunity soonest possible.

Khmer Times