Cambodia begins vaccinating children between 3 and 5 against Covid-19

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Feb 23 (EFE).- Cambodian authorities began Wednesday in several cities of the country the vaccination of children between 3 and 5 to stop the strong coronoavirus omicron variant outbreak in a country, where more than 90 percent of the population is fully immunized.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the measure Tuesday in a speech collected by the Khmer Times newspaper, saying 25 percent of infections by the omicron variant were among children of that age after ending the campaign for those between 5 and 11.

“It is necessary to protect our children from infection by the new omicron variant. So we have no choice but to give two doses of the vaccine to children between 3 and 5 years old,” said Hun Sen, adding that one of his grandchildren, aged 2, was also infected.

Cambodia joins countries such as Ecuador and China that have begun to vaccinate children under 5.

The move comes at a time when Cambodia is experiencing a surge in daily infections and deaths from Covid-19 have been reported for four days in a row after six weeks registering no fatalities.

Cambodia has recorded more than 7,000 omicron infections out of more than 128,000 total infections since the start of the pandemic, including 3,023 deaths.

The country, which relies heavily on Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, has immunized 91 percent of its 16 million people with at least one dose, according to government data. EFE

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