PHNOM PENH, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Information on Sunday called on authorities to take urgent action against fabricators of fake news over COVID-19, saying that those ill-intentioned individuals are trying to cause chaos and misunderstanding.
In its press statement, the ministry named seven Facebook account and page holders for posting false statements about the COVID-19 with false claims that foreigners infected and died of the virus in the country.
"The above-mentioned news postings are fake news and attempting to mislead the public, so we urge people not to share those pieces of fake news because they can face legal action," the statement said.
"We also call on the authorities at all levels to take urgent action against those Facebook account/page owners for posting fake news," it added.
Cambodia confirmed the first and only case of COVID-19 on Jan. 27. The victim is a 60-year-old Chinese man from the central Chinese city of Wuhan. He was discharged from the hospital on Feb. 10 after fully recovering from the disease.
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that so far, there has been no new confirmed case of the virus in the kingdom.
Ministry of Health secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said on Friday that the Southeast Asian country continues to strengthen thermal scanning at all airports, ports and border checkpoints to prevent the virus from spreading to the kingdom.
