Cambodia conducts rapid testing for COVID after major holiday

All public and private institutions have begun testing employees and officials for COVID-19 after the recently concluded Pchum Ben festival.
By: | October 13, 2021

The guidelines were put in place by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training to prevent a large-scale transmission of COVID-19 after the three-day national holiday.

A ministry of environment spokesman Neth Pheaktr said his organisation supported rapid tests after the Pchum Ben holiday for safety and participation in controlling and preventing the spread of COVID-19, adding that the ministry had always tested its officials on Wednesday of each week.

Ly Sovanna, executive director of the Catholic Nations Office for Social Communication in Cambodia, also said he and more than 10 staff members took the rapid tests on the first day of work after the holiday. “This post-holiday test is the right thing to do, and I agree that everyone has to do it because during this break, we do not know where they went or whom they met,” he said.

Nguon Seng, sales executive of Kirirom Food Production (KFP) said that the company also has tested more than 100 of its employees for COVID-19, and none were tested positive.

Ngy Mean Heng, director of the Phnom Penh municipal health department, has said that Phnom Penh was ready to respond to any outbreak of COVID-19 after the Pchum Ben holiday. 

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Municipal governor Khuong Sreng has also provided rapid test kits to the Department of Education, Youth and Sport to test teachers in all educational institutions in Phnom Penh, and the Department of Health to test its officials, according to the Phnom Penh Post.