Cambodia reported its first official death from COVID-19 on Thursday, more than a year since the pandemic began and just as the country’s legislature passed stiff new penalties for flouting virus protocols.
In a statement, the country’s Ministry of Health said a 50-year-old Cambodian man died from the respiratory virus at Phnom Penh’s Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital at 10.40 a.m.
The deceased, diagnosed with COVID-19 on Feb. 27, was a driver in Sihanoukville for a Chinese national who was also infected. Both cases are linked to an outbreak known in Cambodia as the “Feb. 20 event,” for when it was first detected.
