Cambodia Spends Some US$170 Million for COVID-19 Vaccines

Cambodia spends around US$170 million to purchase vaccines for the 10 million people planned for the vaccination, in addition to the 324,000 doses of AstraZeneca/SII (COVISHIELD) via COVAX Facility and 2.2 million doses of Sinopharm donated by China.

The figure was shared by H.E. Vongsey Vissoth, Delegate Minister Attached to the Prime Minister and Permanent Secretary of State for Economy and Finance, upon the arrival of 1 million more doses of Sinovac vaccine at Phnom Penh International Airport this morning.

Cambodia will receive all the planned 20 million doses of vaccines by the end of August this year, he said, adding: "This month, we got 5 million doses, in July we'll receive 5 more million doses, and in August 4 million doses."

Cambodia is expected to achieve its target of vaccinating 10 million people against COVID-19 by October or November this year, stressed the delegate minister.

H.E. Vongsey Vissoth attributed the success of Cambodia in the COVID-19 vaccination - 2nd in ASEAN - to available vaccines, and Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has played a very important role in this factor, and to enough vaccination team members.

For the next step, he continued, Cambodia will consider the vaccination of children, as well as the provision of the 3rd doses.

With the newly arrived vaccines, Cambodia has got in total over 10 million doses of vaccines: 3.2 million doses of Sinopharm, 6.5 million doses of Sinovac, and 324,000 doses of AstraZeneca/SII (COVISHIELD).

As of June 25, the vaccination coverage against COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia reached 38.03 percent of the planned 10 million people to be vaccinated. The figures from the National Ad-hoc Commission for COVID-19 Vaccination show that 3,803,169 people have got their first dose, of them 2,813,108 have already received their second jab.

Yesterday, Phnom Penh municipal administration issued the final call to those who have not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 to do so as the vaccination campaign in Phnom Penh will be wrapped up on July 8, 2021.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press