Coronavirus: Cambodia to mix Sinovac, AstraZeneca vaccine shots as boosters; Indonesia probes how zoo tigers got infected
- Cambodia will administer a third dose to some 500,000 to 1 million frontline workers
- Elsewhere, Australia’s battle against the Delta variant is growing; while Indonesia is investigating how two Sumatran tigers contracted Covid-19 at Jakarta Zoo
Prime Minister Hun Sen, launching the vaccination campaign for 12-17 years old, said on Sunday that the third dose would be offered to some 500,000 to 1 million frontline workers as a priority.
“People who have already been vaccinated with Sinopharm and Sinovac should be given AstraZeneca as the third booster dose,” Hun Sen said in a speech which was broadcast on social media. “For Cambodians who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Sinovac should be given as the third dose.”
Hun Sen also said the country would buy more AstraZeneca vaccines through the Covax Facility for the booster shots, and that the recent US-funded Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be used to vaccinate indigenous peoples in northeastern Cambodia.
Cambodia has launched a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand this week in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.
Cambodia managed to largely contain the virus for most of last year, but an outbreak first detected in late February has driven up total cases to 77,919, with 1,420 deaths.
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