A welcome drop in cases for Cambodia – but warning that ‘Delta is now in the community’

For the 3rd day, daily case totals were lower in Cambodia – but news today of increased ‘Delta’ variant cases in the community will put a dampener on any celebrations.

Cambodia today announced a daily new cases total of 583, bringing the COVID case total for Cambodia to 79,634 cases.

Today, the Ministry of Health said that it appears that the ‘Delta’ variant of COVID-19 is moving into the community as it announced the discovery of 36 more cases in 5 different provinces.

These ‘Delta’ cases included cases found in Phnom Penh and observers are now asking what further restrictions may be implemented in the capital in the near future – as well as in The Kingdom in general.

Daily imported cases are causing concern for The Kingdom with another 157  imported cases being announced today – bringing with them the danger of the ‘Delta’ variant crossing over the now closed border from Thailand.

Experts fear that many cases are undetected in The Kingdom, brought over the border via illegal crossings by frightened migrant workers, desperate to return to their provincial homes.

These are then spreading into the community – despite tight lockdowns in border provinces.

Reports of continued high provincial case numbers shows that the provinces – where the majority of local and imported cases are now being reported – are the new battleground for COVID in Cambodia.

‘Spikes’ of new cases announced today in Oddar Meanchey, Prey Veng and Banteay Meanchey – for example – confirm this.

This means that the total number of Community Cases is 68,282 with 11,352 cases being imported.

Cambodia also announced 17 new deaths, bringing the total to 1488 direct deaths from COVID-19 in Cambodia.

Recoveries outpaced new cases with 658 new recoveries announced today – meaning that the active case total dropped slightly to 5,336.

Agencies