ASEAN HEADLINES: PHNOM PENH Cambodia- Still 260,000 adolescents to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Cambodia as schools set to reopen

After 42 days since the start of the vaccination campaign for adolescents aged 12 to 17 to provide them sufficient immunity against COVID-19 and the Delta Variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus, a total of 1,706,611 of them have been vaccinated, an increase of a mere 2,792 new vaccinations were announced.

This is indeed a disappointing development as the target of 1,966,931 is still 260,000 short of the intended target, accounting for 86.77 percent vaccinated of the total targeted figure.

Schools are also set to reopen throughout the country, starting from September 15 in Phnom Penh and on different dates, but almost all in the month of September throughout the country.

Of this number, 864,351 have been fully vaccinated, an increase of a significant 62,440 adolescents fully inoculated.

Vaccinations against COVID-19 across the board, from adolescents aged 12 to 17 and those 18 and above have been disappointingly slow in recent weeks with no indications from either the Ministry of Health nor the vaccine sub committee as to the underlying reasons for this poor progress.

In June and July this year, the vaccination was at breakneck speed with one million people vaccinated every week.

Currently, with adverse weather, schools reopening, sporadic breakouts of COVID-19 and its more contagious and deadly Delta Variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus, it makes it all the more imperative and urgent for the remaining unvaccinated to receive at least a single dose of the vaccine.

This will ensure that there are no undue surges in the case numbers when schools reopen nationwide as herd immunity is the key to reopening of schools and vaccination was the key component towards this end.