ADB Says Cambodia Fourth Most-Fully Vaccinated Country in Developing Asia

ADB Says Cambodia Fourth Most-Fully Vaccinated Country in Developing Asia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday that Cambodia ranked fourth among 46 developing member economies across the Asia-Pacific region in terms of being fully vaccinated against Covid-19 at the end of November.

Singapore and the Pacific island nation of Palau were the two most fully vaccinated countries at around 90 percent of the population or more.

South Korea, Cambodia and Brunei came next at around 80 percent, the ADB said in a supplement to the update of its Asian Development Outlook in September. Next came Malaysia followed by China, Niue, Bhutan and the Maldives.

Among Cambodia’s neighbours, the bank said Thailand ranked 16th, Vietnam 19th and Laos 21st — all less than 60 percent fully vaccinated.

“Most economies in the region have scaled up their vaccine rollouts, but progress continues to vary considerably,” the supplement said.

“As of Nov. 30, 48.7 percent of developing Asia’s population was fully vaccinated, a marked improvement over the 28.7 percent rate just 3 months earlier,” it said.

“But this still lags behind a 58.1 percent vaccination rate in the U.S. and 67.2 percent in the European Union. And vaccine progress in the region remains highly uneven.”

In 20 economies in developing Asia, the ADB noted that the share of the population that was fully vaccinated was still less than 40 percent.

The ADB definition of Developing Asia comprises economies in Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. AKP