Ms. Pauline Tamesis, UN Resident Coordinator in Cambodia, has expressed her gratitude to the Royal Government of Cambodia for including the UN personnel in the priority groups for the COVID-19 vaccination.

“The UN in Cambodia is grateful to be included in the Royal Government’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) as requested by the UN Secretary-General,” she underlined in a statement.

“UN personnel in Cambodia must do our part to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and this includes receiving the vaccinations to protect ourselves, our families, our communities and the communities we serve,” she continued.

“We can only begin to build back better when we get the pandemic under control. We are being vaccinated so that we can stay and deliver,” said the UN resident coordinator in Cambodia.

At a press conference on Mar. 4 after receiving his first shot of COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said apart from the local officers and general public aged 60 years and older in Phnom Penh capital, and Kandal and Preah Sihanouk provinces being seriously affected by COVID-19 pandemic, all foreign diplomats, UN officers, staff at international financial institutions such as IMF, WB, ADB and INGOs in Cambodia will also have free-of-charge access to the AstraZeneca/SII vaccines.

The Royal Government of Cambodia has planned at least 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the vaccination campaign in 2021, as orders for more vaccines have been placed.

Cambodia has already received 1.5 million doses of Sinovac bought from China, 600,000 doses of the 1 million Sinopharm vaccine donated by China, and 324,000 doses of AstraZeneca/SII donated by WHO via COVAX Facility.