Cambodia’s Omicron cases rise to 332 with 45 new infections

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — The number of confirmed Omicron cases of the COVID-19 variant in Cambodia has increased to 332 after 45 new cases were reported, the health ministry said on Saturday.

It said 29 of the new infections were imported and 16 were locally transmitted.

The southeast Asian country recorded the first case of the Omicron variant on Dec. 14 on a pregnant Cambodian woman returning from the western African country of Ghana.

Cambodian health ministry’s secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said more and more Omicron cases had been detected in the community, urging people to act together to prevent a large-scale community transmission.

Cambodia on Friday started rolling out the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines to priority groups in capital Phnom Penh in response to the Omicron variant.

Read more: Cambodia’s Omicron cases rise to 94 after 9 new infections detected: PM

The country has so far administered at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines to 14.3 million people, or 89.4 percent of its 16-million population, the health ministry said.

Of them, 13.7 million, or 85.6 percent, have been fully vaccinated with two required shots. About 4.5 million, or 28 percent, have taken a third booster shot and 20,200 people have received a fourth booster dose, it said.

Most of the vaccines used in the country’s inoculation campaign are China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm.

According to the ministry, Cambodia has registered a total of 120,773 cases, with 3,015 deaths and 117,089 recoveries.