PHNOM PENH, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) announced Friday night that another 65 new cases of the Delta COVID-19 variant were found, raising the total number of such cases in the Southeast Asian nation to 494.
Laboratory testing conducted by the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia detected the Delta variant on 44 local people, 17 laborers coming back from Thailand through land border and four returnees from the United States, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, the MoH said in a statement.
The local infections were spotted in capital Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kampong Cham, Battambang, Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, among others, it said.
So far, the Delta variant has hit 22 out of the kingdom's 25 cities and provinces, the statement said.
MoH's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine called on people across the country to be more cautious as the Delta variant is more transmissible than other previous strains.
"People who are required to undergo a quarantine must strictly comply with the rules in order to prevent large-scale community transmission," she said in the statement. Enditem
