Cambodia’s last coronavirus patient leaves hospital, no new cases are reported for over a month

An employee of the nonprofit Cambodian Children's Fund sprays disinfectant to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in the slum neighborhood of Stung Meanchey in southern Phnom Penh on March 24.
An employee of the nonprofit Cambodian Children's Fund sprays disinfectant to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus in the slum neighborhood of Stung Meanchey in southern Phnom Penh on March 24.(Heng Sinith/AP)

The last person being treated for COVID-19 at a hospital in Cambodia has been discharged, the country’s health ministry said.
The patient, a 36-year-old woman from the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, was released from the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh, on Saturday.
The news comes as the Southeast Asian nation reports no new cases of the virus since April 12.
Nearly 15,000 people in the country of 16.7 million were tested for the new coronavirus since January. A total of 122 cases were reported, with no deaths.
The woman, who hasn’t been named, thanked the country’s health authorities as she was discharged. The release was shown to the media via livestream, according to Reuters.
Even as all COVID-19 patients fully recovered, the country’s health minister, Mam Bunheng, urged people to keep practicing social distancing guidelines.
“We think that most of the cases, generally, are imported, so we must be careful with all checkpoints at the border, at airports, at ports, at land checkpoints,” he told reporters.

“People who travel from abroad must have a certificate confirming that they don’t have COVID-19. Only then would we allow them in, and once they are in, they will be quarantined for another 14 days,” he added.

On Monday, Bunheng asked citizens to follow hygienic practices as restaurants were allowed to reopen, as reported by the Cambodian news outlet VOD.

“We have not finished the war against the COVID-19 enemy yet,” Bunheng said during the ministry’s weekly press conference in Phnom Penh.

Li Ailan, Cambodia’s WHO representative, urged Cambodians to prepare for a change in behavior to reflect the “new normal” ushered in by the pandemic.

“We are better prepared in Cambodia than we were three months ago, but we’re not fully ready to respond to a large community outbreak, so we have to better prepare for that,” she said.

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