Within 100 days, 2.5 million COVID-19 cases were detected globally. During that same period of time Cambodia detected and managed 122 cases and avoided widespread community-level transmission. With the support of WHO and partners, Cambodia has made important investments over the last ten years in its health security system that allowed it to successfully respond to the initial outbreak of COVID-19.
A whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, along with vigilant surveillance, laboratory, rapid response teams, and good collaboration between the Ministry of Health and technical partners have all contributed to Cambodia’s successful response. Cambodia’s surveillance program includes an indicator-based system (which collects aggregated information on seven disease syndromes from all public health facilities in the country) and an event-based system (which includes daily media monitoring for reported cases and a hotline for the public to call to report cases). Cambodia’s laboratories are well equipped with reliable, accurate and timely diagnostics. Rapid response teams are well trained on investigating and verifying calls made to the surveillance hotline, contact tracing, and hot-spotting.
Read the full WHO story on Cambodia’s successful response to the pandemic
Read more about WHO’s response to COVID-19