Cambodia’s Ministry of Health is looking into the possibility of requiring proof of booster shots status before allowing quarantine-free entry into Cambodia, in an effort to contain the Omicron strain of COVID-19.

A security guard checks the vaccination status of a shopper before allowing entry into a market in Phnom Penh (Photo: khmertimeskh.com)

This is to ensure the success of the country’s efforts to achieve herd immunity.

Khmer Times newspaper quoted Health Ministry spokesman Hok Kimcheng as saying that the ministry is mulling over the implementation of an additional quarantine-free entry requirement that all arrivals from other countries must have had booster shots after a maximum of six months from the time they were vaccinated with the second dose.

Cambodia posts a high vaccination rate and is heading toward achieving the herd immunity target for people in the country, he said, adding that the booster shot requirement is being implemented because the highly infectious Omicron variant is circulating widely.

However, it will be difficult to implement the booster shot entry requirement in the near future because some countries have yet to establish a booster shot regime.

Authorities of Phnom Penh capital have urged people to get booster shots, imposing stricter conditions for those who wish to enter public or private institutions or businesses.

Meanwhile, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered the acceleration of the production of the country’s COVID-19 candidate vaccine in a bid to speed up vaccination.

The vaccine is expected to be launched no later than this March, according to Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin.

The country on January 12 began to administer the booster shots as it reported the highest COVID-19 daily caseload in the recent three months prompted by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Source: VNA