PHNOM PENH, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's COVID-19 total caseload surged to 60,959 on Sunday after 981 new infections were reported across the country in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.
A total of 21 new fatalities had been confirmed, taking the national death toll to 902, the ministry said, adding that another 815 patients had recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 52,475.
MoH's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine warned of a large scale community transmission if people relaxed preventive measures.
"We are worrying about passing the red line if people are still relaxing preventive measures," she said on the social media. "We must act responsibly together now to reverse the situation. A large scale community transmission is in front of us."
World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Cambodia Li Ailan said relaxing public health and social measures too quick and lifting them too early would result in a surge in COVID-19 infections.
"Cambodia's achievements in vaccination are significant, but relaxing other COVID-19 measures too soon means 'losing some of the gains' that the vaccines have made," she tweeted.
The Southeast Asian nation launched a COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb 10, with China being the key vaccine supplier. To date, 4.84 million people, or 48.4 percent of the 10 million targeted adult population, have been vaccinated, according to the MoH.
"I'm very pleased to see the speed in COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Cambodia. Looking forward to another important milestone soon of '5 million people' having received the first dose of the vaccine," Li said. Enditem
