AKP Phnom Penh, March 07, 2020 --

A new case of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has been confirmed today by the Pasteur Institute Cambodia.

The information was shared by Minister of Health H.E. Mam Bunheng in a press conference here at the ministry this evening.

The new confirmed case was found on a Cambodian man, 38, who has had direct contact with a Japanese man who was tested positive for Covid-19 after departing from Siem Reap province to Japan’s Nagoya, with a transit in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, he pointed out.

The new case is now put under quarantine at Siem Reap referral hospital while the other three persons  - a man and two women - who also had direct contact with the Japanese businessman, were tested negative, said H.E. Minister.

The Ministry of Health will have the specimens of all people having direct or indirect contact with the Japanese man tested at the Pasteur Institute Cambodia, he underlined.

While reaffirming its closed cooperation with the World Health Organisation, the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC), and the Pasteur Institute Cambodia the Ministry of Health called on the public not to get panic, but to apply self-hygiene and eat well-cooked meat.  

H.E. Mam Bunheng also appealed to those who travelled to and from the Covid-19-affected countries to pay high attention to their health and to go to the nearest hospital if any suspicious symptom appears.

The Ministry of Health will keep the public updated on Covid-19 on its the official websites or Facebook pages of the ministry, or the Department of Communicable Disease Control, he added.

This is the second case of Covid-19 recorded in Cambodia, after a 60-year-old Chinese man, who was tested positive in late January, has fully recovered a few weeks later and returned to his home country.

By C. Nika