(UCAN): Cambodia ended all quarantine for travellers who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in a bid to revive an economy crushed by the pandemic. The quarantine waiver will be effective from November 15 and will apply to all including those currently in quarantine and who have tested negative for the disease. However, those who have not been vaccinated are required to do a polymerase chain reaction [PCR] test and spend 14 days in quarantine.
The country’s prime minister, Hun Sen, said that quarantine was no longer necessary for people arriving by land, sea and air after authorities vaccinated 88 per cent of the country’s 16 million people. However, Covid-19 rapid tests will still be required.
“You just need to wait 15-20 minutes for the rapid test results and then you can continue your journey to any place across the entire country with no limitations, however you wish,” he said in a televised address.
“This policy will be applied without discrimination to everyone, whether they are Cambodian people who are living or traveling abroad and returning home, or foreign tourists or investors. This applies to everyone equally.”
The policy is clearly aimed at, among other things, resurrecting the country’s once-lucrative international tourist industry.
The government has estimated that the pandemic cost six million Cambodian jobs and sources say it will focus on boosting tourism from short-haul points of origin such as Japan, South Korea, China and other Southeast Asian countries.
However, travel overland via its immediate neighbours—Thailand, Laos and Vietnam—could prove difficult. The three countries have yet to rein in the pandemic due to a slow rollout of their respective vaccination programmes.
Cambodia began opening up to a “new normal” on November 1 with a gradual easing of health restrictions designed to curb the pandemic after daily case numbers plummeted below 70. However, the death rate still remains high.
Of the 84 deaths attributed to Covid-19 in the first half of November, 29 people were vaccinated.
