Cambodia’s PM says country on ‘brink of death’ from Covid surge

PHNOM PENH: Spiraling Covid-19 cases have put Cambodia “on the brink of death”, its strongman premier Hun Sen has warned, as the country imposed lockdowns in the capital Phnom Penh and a nearby city. The Southeast Asian kingdom has seen Covid-19 cases surge since February, when an outbreak was first detected among its Chinese expatriate community. Authorities said last week that hospitals in Phnom Penh were running out of beds and that they had transformed schools and wedding party halls into treatment centres, while Hun Sen threatened quarantine-breakers with jail time. Phnom Penh and adjacent city Ta Khmau were Wednesday night placed under lockdown for two weeks to curb the spread, effectively halting the movement of more than two million people. “Please my people — join your efforts to end this dangerous event,” pled premier Hun Sen in a recorded address aired on state-run television on Wednesday night. “We are on the brink of death already,” he said. “If we don’t join hands together, we will head to real death.” Cambodia’s latest announced figures exceeded 4,800, but the premier said Wednesday that an additional 300 cases had been detected. — dpa