British woman is Cambodia's third Covid-19 case

CAMBODIA 

Wednesday, 11 Mar 2020

Cambodian Minister of Health Mam Bun Heng at the press conference. - PPP/ANN

PHNOM PENH (The Phnom Penh Post/ANN): Cambodia recorded its third Covid-19 case on Tuesday (March 10) after a 65-year-old British woman contracted the disease while travelling from England to Vietnam.

She entered the kingdom when she travelled aboard the Viking Cruise Journey, a small cruise ship that travelled from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Kampong Cham province last week.

Minister of Health Mam Bun Heng told an urgently called press conference on Tuesday evening that the ship is currently under strict quarantine on a river in Kampong Cham.

“The woman contracted the novel coronavirus infection from a Vietnamese national who sat beside her as they travelled on the same flight from England to Vietnam last week. The British woman then boarded the ship which left Vietnam on March 5 and arrived in Phnom Penh on March 7, ” he said.

Bun Heng said after Cambodia received information that five British tourists had been in contact with a Vietnamese Covid-19 victim, health authorities immediately attempted to test all five British nationals on Saturday.

“But the test could only be done on three of them and the results were negative. Two other women initially refused to take the Covid-19 test.

“But they agreed to do so when they reached Kampong Cham, and this is when we identified the 65-year-old British woman to be Covid-19 positive. Nevertheless, the infected lady is in good general health, ” he said.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Or Vandin said at the press conference that the ministry is in the process of identifying others who were in contact with the British woman, especially a translator.

She said there were another 64 passengers and crew on the cruise ship and all of them have been strictly quarantined on it. - The Phnom Penh Post/Asia News Network