Buddhists bathe a Buddha statue at the Ounalom Pagoda during the first day of the three-day Khmer New Year holiday amid ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 14, 2021. The Ministry of Health has called on people to celebrate the New Year at home as Cambodia has seen a sharp rise in new cases. The kingdom logged 178 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua)
PHNOM PENH, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Wednesday logged 178 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths, the country's Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.
The new cases included 177 local cases -- mostly in capital Phnom Penh and one imported case, the statement said, adding that the imported case was detected on a 47-year-old Cambodian man returning from Thailand on Monday.
In the latest move, the country required people in Svay Rieng province to wear face masks in the public and in businesses, saying that the province has been determined as the high-risk COVID-19 area of infections.
Svay Rieng province is the sixth province that mask-wearing has been mandatory after capital Phnom Penh, Preah Sihanouk, Kandal, Prey Veng and Siem Reap provinces.
Under the kingdom's law, first-time violators will be issued a warning, as repeat offenders will be fined between 50 and 250 U.S. dollars.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Southeast Asian country has officially registered a total of 4,874 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 35 deaths, the MoH said, adding that there are currently 2,544 active cases in the kingdom.
Cambodia began an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb 10. As of Tuesday, some 1.17 million out of the country's 16 million population had been vaccinated against the virus, showed a government report. Enditem
