Cambodian PM Hun Sen seeks India's assistance for COVID-19 vaccine

The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday requested the Indian government to provide the COVID-19 vaccine during his meeting with the new Indian ambassador to Cambodia Devyani Uttamkhobragade, reported The Phnom Penh Post.

The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday requested the Indian government to provide the COVID-19 vaccine during his meeting with the new Indian ambassador to Cambodia Devy Uttamkhobragade, reported The Phnom Penh Post.

India produced its own vaccine Covishield and Covaxin that were administered at various medical centres all across India on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the pan-India rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on Saturday via video conferencing.

The Indian COVID-19 vaccine drive is billed as the world's largest vaccination programme, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first inoculate 300 million Indians this year.

Hun Sen congratulated India on the country's successful production of COVID-19 vaccines and requested that India donate COVID-19 vaccines to Cambodia to help save Cambodian lives because even with the COVID-19 vaccines recently donated by China, the Kingdom would still need millions of additional doses to protect the whole nation, reported The Phnom Penh Post.

Earlier, Hun Sen announced that China had offered to provide one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Cambodia and that he had decided to accept the offer despite the vaccine not yet having WHO approval due to the urgency of the situation, reported The Phnom Penh Post.

He also vowed to be the first Cambodian immunised with the vaccine in order to build public confidence in its safety.

Meanwhile, Uttamkhobragade congratulated Hun Sen and the Cambodian government for their excellent results to date in the campaign to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

As of January 18, Cambodia had recorded a total of 439 Covid-19 cases with 53 still hospitalised, reported The Phnom Penh Post.

( With inputs from ANI )