We were expecting Cambodia to continue with targeted zone based lockdowns for some time but over the last week almost all COVID-19 restrictions in Phnom Penh have been lifted. The few that remain, like mask wearing and bans on large public gatherings, are not being enforced. I think we’re already seeing the impact of this in our daily cases which “turned the curve” but are now beginning to rebound. I think this increase reflects the easing of restrictions two weeks ago when the full lockdown ended. I saw mask wearing and social distancing in the streets drop from near 100% down to closer to 70%. Today, when I went out, both were closer to 50%. If this follows the treads of other countries, we’ll see the full impact of restrictions being lifted in another week.

The lockdown presented immense challenges. Lack of food access has been resolved as the public markets reopen and red zones become yellow, but many people are still desperate due to lack of work in Phnom Penh. We are still implementing two humanitarian relief projects within Cambodia focused on this.

Hopefully I’m wrong and we won’t see a resurgence of cases, people with subsistence livelihoods can’t afford another lockdown. This is yet another no win situation for the poor and marginalized. We feel very blessed to be receiving our second dose of vaccine this week and the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia deserves a lot of credit for it’s vaccine rollout.