Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022
As a member state of the International Health Regulations 2005, Cambodia is continuously strengthening its capacity to respond to health emergencies and prevent the international spread of diseases. Despite this, Cambodia’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats rem...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2023-05-01
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| Series: | BMJ Global Health |
| Online Access: | https://gh.bmj.com/content/8/5/e011885.full |
| _version_ | 1797833777915887616 |
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| author | Por Ir Willem Van De Put Wim Van Damme Srean Chhim Chhorvann Chhea Grace Ku Sovathiro Mao Vandine Or |
| author_facet | Por Ir Willem Van De Put Wim Van Damme Srean Chhim Chhorvann Chhea Grace Ku Sovathiro Mao Vandine Or |
| author_sort | Por Ir |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As a member state of the International Health Regulations 2005, Cambodia is continuously strengthening its capacity to respond to health emergencies and prevent the international spread of diseases. Despite this, Cambodia’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats remained limited at the onset of the pandemic, as was the case in most countries. This paper describes epidemiological phases, response phases, strategy and lessons learnt in Cambodia between 27 January 2020 and 30 June 2022. We classified epidemiological phases in Cambodia into three phases, in which Cambodia responded using eight measures: (1) detect, isolate/quarantine; (2) face coverings, hand hygiene and physical distancing measures; (3) risk communication and community engagement; (4) school closures; (5) border closures; (6) public event and gathering cancellation; (7) vaccination; and (8) lockdown. The measures corresponded to six strategies: (1) setting up and managing a new response system, (2) containing the spread with early response, (3) strengthening the identification of cases and contacts, (4) strengthening care for patients with COVID-19, (5) boosting vaccination coverage and (6) supporting disadvantaged groups. Thirteen lessons were learnt for future health emergency responses. Findings suggest that Cambodia successfully contained the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the first year and quickly attained high vaccine coverage by the second year of the response. The core of this success was the strong political will and high level of cooperation from the public. However, Cambodia needs to further improve its infrastructure for quarantining and isolating cases and close contacts and laboratory capacity for future health emergencies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:28:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-98587bff82c548fe939e0e55a089e447 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2059-7908 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:28:27Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Global Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-98587bff82c548fe939e0e55a089e4472023-05-03T20:30:07ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082023-05-018510.1136/bmjgh-2023-011885Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022Por Ir0Willem Van De Put1Wim Van Damme2Srean Chhim3Chhorvann Chhea4Grace Ku5Sovathiro Mao6Vandine Or7Technical Bureau, National Institute of Public Health, Phnom Penh, CambodiaDepartment of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium4 Gerontology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium1 FHI 360, Phnom Penh, CambodiaCambodia National Institute of Public Health, Phnom Penh, Cambodia3 Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium1 Technical Office, National Institute of Public Health, Phnom Penh, Cambodia6 Management team, Ministry of Health, Phnom Penh, CambodiaAs a member state of the International Health Regulations 2005, Cambodia is continuously strengthening its capacity to respond to health emergencies and prevent the international spread of diseases. Despite this, Cambodia’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats remained limited at the onset of the pandemic, as was the case in most countries. This paper describes epidemiological phases, response phases, strategy and lessons learnt in Cambodia between 27 January 2020 and 30 June 2022. We classified epidemiological phases in Cambodia into three phases, in which Cambodia responded using eight measures: (1) detect, isolate/quarantine; (2) face coverings, hand hygiene and physical distancing measures; (3) risk communication and community engagement; (4) school closures; (5) border closures; (6) public event and gathering cancellation; (7) vaccination; and (8) lockdown. The measures corresponded to six strategies: (1) setting up and managing a new response system, (2) containing the spread with early response, (3) strengthening the identification of cases and contacts, (4) strengthening care for patients with COVID-19, (5) boosting vaccination coverage and (6) supporting disadvantaged groups. Thirteen lessons were learnt for future health emergency responses. Findings suggest that Cambodia successfully contained the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the first year and quickly attained high vaccine coverage by the second year of the response. The core of this success was the strong political will and high level of cooperation from the public. However, Cambodia needs to further improve its infrastructure for quarantining and isolating cases and close contacts and laboratory capacity for future health emergencies.https://gh.bmj.com/content/8/5/e011885.full |
| spellingShingle | Por Ir Willem Van De Put Wim Van Damme Srean Chhim Chhorvann Chhea Grace Ku Sovathiro Mao Vandine Or Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022 BMJ Global Health |
| title | Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022 |
| title_full | Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022 |
| title_fullStr | Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022 |
| title_short | Descriptive assessment of COVID-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022 |
| title_sort | descriptive assessment of covid 19 responses and lessons learnt in cambodia january 2020 to june 2022 |
| url | https://gh.bmj.com/content/8/5/e011885.full |
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