Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced a full reopening of the country across all sectors from 1 November after reaching its national vaccination targets early.
The reopening will see all restrictions dropped, excluding international borders, with 86% of the population now vaccinated and a program in place to expand the vaccination program to school children.
“From now on, the full reopening of the country in all areas and living with COVID-19 in a new way of life starts from today,” the Prime Minister said.
“There are four factors that go into determining that we can reopen the country. The first factor is that Cambodia successfully achieved its goals for the vaccination drive, for base shots and booster shots. Our booster shots have reached nearly two million people.”
He also explained that the government was now well prepared to combat any future outbreaks, that significant supplies of booster shots were either available or on order, and that citizens were better educated in how to protect themselves.
“If there are no future complications due to other dangerous new variants of COVID-19, then I can assure you all that we are walking away from COVID-19 now full of confidence,” the Prime Minister said.
While restrictions still remain for international visitors, Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism announced last week that Sihanoukville would become first province to welcome back vaccinated international guests without the need for hotel quarantine from 30 November as part of a pilot program. If successful, Siem Reap will become the second destination to welcome tourists from January 2022.
Phnom Penh integrated resort NagaWorld recently announced it had reopened on 15 September following approval from the Ministry of Health, with guests required to have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and show a negative test result obtained inside the previous seven days.
