PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Cambodia closes its most popular tourist destination, the centennial Angkor temple complex, for two weeks to help curb the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
The closure of the world-famous site is the latest in a series of steps the country is taking after the number of coronavirus cases grew in February.
The Apsara Authority, the government agency that oversees the archeological site, said temporarily stopping local and foreign tourists from visiting the temples is important to help fight the virus. A statement dated Wednesday said visitors are banned from April 7-20.
The Angkor site in northwestern Siem Reap province attracted 2.2 million foreign tourists in 2019, but experienced a sharp drop last year due to pandemic disruptions. Cambodia allows tourists, but they have to pass a quarantine.
The Ministry of Health on Thursday announced 113 new local cases of coronavirus and two deaths. Cambodia has recorded a total of 3,028 cases, including 23 deaths.
The ministry has located the latest outbreak in a foreign resident who broke his quarantine in a hotel and went to a nightclub in early February. On February 20, the government announced the planned two-week closure of all public schools, cinemas, bars and entertainment venues in the capital, Phnom Penh.
As the number of cases increased, the closures spread across the country to schools, gyms, concert halls, museums and other meeting places.
A missing luxury hotel in the capital has been turned into a 500-room coronavirus hospital and authorities are enforcing a new law imposing a criminal penalty for violating health regulations.
The use of masks became mandatory in Phnom Penh and in four of the most densely populated provinces in the country.
The government intensified other restrictions earlier this month, including a two-week curfew, from 8pm to 5am in Phnom Penh.
It also expanded its coronavirus vaccination campaign, targeting one million doses a month starting in April. By the end of March, some 400,000 people (about a third of them members of the armed forces) had received vaccines.
By the end of March, Cambodia had purchased more than 3.1 million doses of vaccines from China and through the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative. Cambodia has a population of about 17 million.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said this week on his social media channels that vaccines are voluntary, but that civil servants and members of the army run the risk of being fired if they are not inoculated.