Cambodia begins vaccinations for teens
the country began a roll out of Covid-19 vaccinations for teenagers in its capital Phnom Penh and three provinces, with Premier hun Sen’s grandchildren among the first to get the jab.
Several countries in South-east Asia are currently experiencing a deadly Covid-19 resurgence largely driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, which has set back the region’s successes last year in curbing pandemic tolls.
While Cambodia appeared to have escaped the brunt of the virus last year, an outbreak first detected in February has steadily driven up the caseload to nearly 78,000.
Yesterday, the kingdom began vaccinating children between the ages of 12 and 17, starting the campaign in its capital Phnom Penh, as well as in the three hardest-hit provinces of Kandal, Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk.
“the vaccination for children today is a key step to herd immunity in communities,” said hun Sen.
“Children are like bamboo shoots. if the health of children is damaged now, we won’t have good bamboos.”
Earlier in the day, he watched as doctors administered the Chinesemade Sinovac to his grandchildren.
they will be among the two million teenagers expected to be vaccinated, hun Sen said, adding that the kingdom is mulling inoculating children aged 10 and 11.
Several countries in Europe – like Denmark, France and Lithuania – have begun vaccinating children in a bid to faster reach herd immunity.
Cambodia’s mass inoculation campaign has so far seen more than seven million people out of the 10 million eligible receive the Ukproduced Astrazeneca, the Usdonated Johnson & Johnson, or the Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm jabs.
hun Sen said authorities will also soon begin administering booster shots to adults who are fully vaccinated, and will take a page out of neighbouring thailand’s book by mixing vaccines.
in line with this policy, the premier – who has already received two doses of the Astrazeneca jab – said he wants to receive a booster shot of Sinovac.
Cambodia has some of the region’s weakest healthcare infrastructure and is ill-equipped to deal with a major outbreak of Covid-19.
On thursday it imposed fresh restrictions on eight provinces bordering thailand – which has seen skyrocketing cases and deaths due to the Delta variant.