Cambodia beats COVID with leadership, vaccines and cooperation with China

Cooperation with China has been key to Cambodia achieving COVID-free status, experts say.

"I am very happy that COVID has been controlled (in Cambodia)," said Mey Kalyan, chairman of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. He noted that bringing the virus under control in the developing country has allowed people to continue working and make a living.

Mey told China Daily that Cambodians are very proud of the country's success, and "all this happened because of the close cooperation with the Chinese government".

"The Chinese government is very generous, very kind, and very helpful as a friendly country to help us in great need," he said.

Cambodia's Health Ministry said in a statement on June 7 that the country has become a state free of COVID-19 after the recovery of the last patient, according to Xinhua News Agency.

As of June 7, no new cases had been reported in the country for 31 straight days, the statement said. Since the pandemic began in January 2020, Cambodia had reported 136,262 cases, one of the lowest totals in Southeast Asia, with 3,056 deaths.

Or Vandine, the Cambodian Health Ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman, attributed the country's success in controlling the pandemic to the government's right leadership and the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

Most of the vaccines Cambodia used in its national immunization campaign were from China, which also provided medical equipment and sent medical experts, including a team of experts on traditional Chinese medicine, to help the Southeast Asian nation fight the pandemic.

As of June 9, 89.4 percent of Cambodia's 16 million population had been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. About 58 percent of people had received a third dose, while 16 percent had had a fourth jab.

Cambodia on June 9 also started to provide the fifth dose of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

Chheang Vannarith, president of Phnom Penh-based think tank Asian Vision Institute, said China was the first country to help Cambodia in the early days of the pandemic and Chinese vaccines accounted for over 80 percent of the total used in Cambodia.

"Vaccines are the most strategic weapons (against the pandemic) and China is the most important strategic partner for Cambodia's vaccination strategy," said Chheang, adding the early and fast rollout of vaccination defines Cambodia's anti-pandemic success.

"Without the help (from China), Cambodia could not have achieved the status of a COVID-free country," said Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh.

Matthews said Cambodia's leadership has been decisive since the beginning of the pandemic and made the right decision to provide vaccination to all people in the country, including foreigners.

Thanks to a high vaccination rate, Cambodia has fully resumed its socioeconomic activities since November, with its international borders also reopened to fully vaccinated tourists without quarantine, said Matthews. He noted that daily life in Cambodia has largely been restored to what it was before COVID.

Cambodia attracted nearly 250,000 international visitors between January and April, up 191 percent year-on-year, according to its Tourism Ministry.

Mey, from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, said the help from China was on time and that the cooperation will have a long-term impact, boosting Cambodia's development.

On June 1, China and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of a COVID-19 vaccine filling and packaging factory in the Southeast Asian nation.

Citing a voice message on Facebook from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, local media the Khmer Times reported that the participating Cambodian company, with assistance from Chinese partner Sinovac, is set to produce 35 million COVID-19 vaccine doses per year in 2024-26.

Referring to a Chinese proverb that says teaching a man to fish is better than giving him a fish to feed him for just a day, Mey said the cooperation is important because only through human resources development can a country develop.

While achieving COVID-free status does not mean there will be no infections in the country, Chheang from the Asian Vision Institute said a key indicator is the absence of severe cases or deaths.

Since severity of the pandemic still varies globally, Chheang said the government should keep monitoring the situation, even though many people are quite confident Cambodia has built a kind of herd immunity and resilience.