By many metrics, Cambodia is still doing well during the pandemic but the situation is much worse than it was just two months ago. On Friday, we saw our highest increase of cases with almost 700 people diagnosed followed by almost 500 people on Saturday and another 300 people yesterday. These are not high numbers compared to many parts of the world but up until last week there were only a handful of days with cases in the mid-100s. The government has responded with increasingly stronger measures including a curfew, gathering ban, interprovincial travel ban, and – today- a full lockdown in Phnom Penh.

The local healthcare system converted several hotels into COVID-19 but is quickly becoming overwhelmed and is now advising individuals with mild cases to self-isolate at home. It’s a story that we’ve been reading in the news from around the world over the last year but in early 2021 we were beginning to hope that maybe Cambodia had been spared. The February 20th incident, as it’s being called, when four people from China bribed their way out of quarantine after arriving on a flight with a positive case and then went night club / casino hopping around the country changed that. Most of the new cases here are of the more virulent UK variant of COVID-19.

Our family won’t need to make any major adjustments to the lockdown as we’ve already been following most of it’s restrictions for over a month now. We’ve only been going out for groceries once or twice a week, staying home otherwise aside from a morning socially distanced walk and occasionally trips to the office. So we’ll have to rethink our walk but there’s a caveat in the lockdown announcement that foreign NGO workers can still go to work. We live three houses down from the office so it’s not like we’re traveling across town.

On the bright side, Cambodia is rapidly vaccinating people in Phnom Penh and five of our staff have already received their first dose. The rest of us are scheduled to get our first dose on Sunday, April 18.