By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ANKARA (AA) – Cambodia has received its first doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines from the global COVAX initiative, according to a statement by the prime minister.
Hun Sen said in a Facebook statement that the country on Tuesday night received AstraZeneca vaccines which were manufactured in India.
The Southeast Asian nation received its first 324,000 doses from the COVAX initiative that will continue to deliver the vaccines this year, said Sen.
COVAX is co-led by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization. It aims to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.
It will provide vaccines to each country equal to 20% of their population.
“This is trustworthy,” the prime minister noted, saying Cambodia is one of the first countries in the Western Pacific area to get vaccinates from the COVAX facility.
COVAX will deliver 6.4 million doses of its two-dose regimen to 3.2 million people, accounting for 20% of Cambodia’s 16 million population.
Under the facility, Cambodia, a country of 16 million people, is expected to receive 1.1 million vaccine doses.
The prime minister also announced to take the AstraZeneca jab himself and is expected to receive the first dose on Thursday.
Early last month, Sen personally received a donation of 600,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China that is expected to donate the second shipment of 400,000 doses early next month.
According to US-based Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 data, Cambodia has reported 878 cases of the coronavirus with no deaths, so far.
