New arrival of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines gives another boost to Cambodia's inoculation drive

PHNOM PENH -- A new batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Saturday, giving another boost to the country's vaccination drive.

Speaking to reporters while receiving the vaccine at the capital's airport, Economy and Finance Ministry's permanent secretary of state Vongsey Vissoth said the vaccines were purchased from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.

He thanked China for supplying the vaccine to the Southeast Asian nation timely.

"The special bond of Cambodia-China friendship has played an invaluable role to ensure that the vaccines are available on time for Cambodia to inoculate our people," he said.

Cambodia has so far acquired more than 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China and the World Health Organization's COVAX Facility, Vissoth said.

Cambodia launched an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb 10, starting from Phnom Penh and Kandal province, before expanding to five other provinces, namely Preah Sihanouk, Koh Kong, Kampong Speu, Takeo and Svay Rieng, earlier this week.

As of June 25, some 6.6 million vaccines have been administered in the kingdom, with 3.8 million people receiving their first dose and 2.8 million having completed the two-dose inoculation, according to health ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine.

Cambodia's COVID-19 infection rates continued to rise on Saturday as the kingdom reported 745 new cases, pushing the national caseload to 46,810, the health ministry said in a statement.

The country also recorded 14 new fatalities, taking the overall death toll to 523 so far, the ministry said, adding that 670 more patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 41,439.