Cambodia receives new batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX Facility

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Monday received another batch of 300,000 doses of Chinese-made Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility, a senior health official said.

Cambodian Ministry of Health (MoH) Secretary of State Yok Sambath said a flight carrying the jabs touched down at Phnom Penh International Airport at around 10:30 a.m. local time.

With the newly arrived vaccines, Cambodia has so far received a total of 40.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from three sources through bilateral procurement, the COVAX Facility, and donations. Of the total, over 90 percent were purchased from or donated by China, according to the MoH.

Cambodia launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive in February. As of Dec. 12, the country had administered at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines to 14.2 million people, or 88.7 percent of its 16-million population, the MoH said.

Of them, 13.5 million, or 84.6 percent, had been fully vaccinated with both required shots, and 2.8 million, or 17.5 percent, had taken a booster dose, it added.

The southeast Asian nation reported 15 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the national total caseload to 120,370, the MoH said, adding that four more fatalities had been recorded, taking the overall death toll to 2,989.