Cambodia Needs to Strengthen Its Precautionary and Quarantine Measures to Avoid Future COVID-19 Crisis

Written By: Samoeurth Seavmeng, 3rd Generation Leader of Politikoffee

Edited by: Heng Kimkong, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Cambodia Development Center and a PhD Candidate in Education at The University of Queensland, Australia

(Photo Credit: Mr. Po Sakun, Thmey Thmey)

Many people probably did not expect the third community outbreak of COVID-19, known as the 20 February event, in Cambodia, which has so far caused more than 16 thousand infections and more than one hundred deaths. I once thought that the fight against the pandemic was over and that Cambodia having secured vaccines for its people would be able to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the country entirely. However, despite the presence of the vaccines and the success Cambodia had over the past year, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the country. The health system has been overwhelmed by the increasing number of new infections and deaths, prompting the government to use wedding reception centers like Koh Pich Convention & Exhibition Center and The Premier Center Sen Sok as quarantine centers. Phnom Penh and neighboring Ta Khmao town have been placed in lockdown since April 15. The lockdown is expected to end on May 5, instead of April 28 as previously planned. The situation seems to get worse as several hundred new infections have been reported daily. 

As a Cambodian citizen, I have witnessed the great work of tireless doctors and nurses, volunteers, authorities, ministries and relevant stakeholders in the fight against COVID-19. Most Cambodian people have also practiced precautionary measures and followed health recommendations from the authorities. However, the current COVID-19 situation happened because a small group of people who are responsible for implementing and enforcing the anti-COVID-19 measures were corrupted and overlooked strict quarantine policies for travelers coming to Cambodia. Some local people were also complacent and did not comply with the precautionary measures recommended by the health authority.

Lack of strict quarantine policy

In the first place, if the government had strictly implemented and tightened the quarantine policy for incoming international travelers, the current situation of COVID-19 would not have become so severe like this. All the COVID-19 outbreaks have been triggered by imported cases. Evidently, the first community outbreak, known as “the November 28 incident” was brought in by the wife of Cambodia’s prisons chief, who had traveled abroad. This incident caused more than 300 infections but no death. The second community outbreak was linked to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, who didn’t quarantine himself before meeting with Cambodia high ranking officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen. Lastly and unfortunately, the infection began to spread when four Chinese nationals who escaped their two-week quarantine from a five-star hotel in Phnom Penh went clubbing. The club became a hotspot where the virus was reported to start spreading to the community.

The current COVID-19 nightmare would not have happened if the two-week quarantine policy had been strictly applied to everyone without any exception. Moreover, the quarantine centers should have been fully restricted and carefully monitored by relevant authorities to prevent people from escaping their quarantine before they met the 14-day quarantine requirement. Thus, if the authorities had paid more attention, those international travelers could not have left the quarantine hotel and then spread COVID-19 to other people. We were lucky that the previous two incidents did not cause too many infections to the Cambodian people, yet the 20 February event has ended this luck.

Lack of precautionary methods and plans

Similar to the imported cases, the government probably did not foresee possible scenarios of COVID-19 spread in the country. Obviously, COVID-19 infections could explode in garment factories which are potential hotspots. If this even-worse scenario happens, there would be greater damage to the country. During the outbreaks, the factory workers were still working normally, although new cases were reported daily. Factory workers are people who earn the minimum wage; they live and work in small and crowded places. Their working space, dining place, traveling and accommodation are vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19. This is not to mention that most of them are close to one another when they work, sleep, eat and travel. If one of them got infected, the spread would definitely mushroom and the infection would be unmanageable.

Unwantedly, this worse scenario eventually occurred when 788 workers from more than 36 factories got infected on April 17, 2021. This was the result of the lack of precautionary measures for these hotspots, causing infection rates to rise quickly, making the health system almost unable to cope. We have seen the consequences of the lack of adherence to the precautionary measures in other countries such as Thailand and India. For example, Thailand allowed their citizens to enjoy freedom at nightclubs, pubs and parties as though the virus was gone. As a result, on April 29, 2021 alone, the country recorded 10 deaths and 1871 infections. The case of India is worse. The Indian government allowed Indian people to celebrate weddings and religious festivals, causing infections to soar at a rate of 300,000 to 400,000 new cases per day. So far, India has recorded more than 200,000 deaths and nearly 20 million infections. Cambodia needs to learn from these lessons to avoid becoming another victim of the COVID-19 tragedy.    

Conclusion and recommendations

Even though the Cambodian government has tried its best to contain the spread of COVID-19, the community transmission eventually occurred, causing nearly 100 deaths so far. However, the February 20 event will end ultimately; therefore, we need to prepare for the future in case there are new variants of COVID-19 or another community transmission. We need to ensure that Cambodia is ready to curb rather than dealing with the disease desperately and exhaustively. Below are a few recommendations.

• First, Cambodia should learn the lesson from what happened in India and other countries which allowed mass gatherings while COVID-19 is still around. As Cambodia will hold commune elections in 2022 and the national election in 2023, election campaigns need to be limited unless the pandemic is under complete control. Large gatherings of people and campaigns as well as the celebration of other important national festivals must be postponed or cancelled. We need to sacrifice some freedom to save the country from COVID-19. The government needs to reinforce precautionary measures until the complete absence of COVID-19 infections is confirmed.
• Second, Cambodia needs to tighten quarantine policies for both foreigners and Cambodian people. Strict quarantine policies must be enhanced to ensure that no loopholes or any incidents can occur like the 20 February event again. Any potential hotspots such as garment factories and wet markets need to be under special precautionary measures and control.
• Lastly, the Cambodian government should have post-pandemic national plans and policies to help and assist Cambodian people who have been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The existing COVID-19 relief program should continue to ensure that the most affected Cambodian families can survive and build back better post-pandemic.