Analysis: Cambodia’s Vaccination Drive

Local media sources praise Cambodia for being second in ASEAN, but the achievement is far more significant, as Cambodia ranks 11th globally for non-European countries with a population over 5M according to the Financial Times vaccination tracker. Note that Cambodia is 8th on this list & chart for fully vaccinated people, but UAE, China and Saudi Arabia are highly vaccinated but data isn’t broken down between 1st and 2nd doses.

Cambodia’s rollout pace is also impressive compared to other countries with a 7-day moving average of around 80-100k over the last two weeks (or 0.6 per 100 people). The following visual is a screenshot from the Financial Times vaccine tracker:

According to this poll done in the latter half of 2020, Cambodia ranked 9th out of the 116 countries surveyed as 84% said they were willing to take the COVID vaccine. Laos & Thailand and Vietnam were also at above 80%. The lowest statistics were mostly around the former USSR (Czech Republic at 38% and Kazakhstan at 25%), but USA, Spain, France, and Italy also scored low. It is worth noting though that almost all countries (including Cambodia) have since seen a higher rollout than these rates predicted.

When Cambodia first announced that from April, 1M doses would be distributed each month, many were intrigued. Three months these targets have not only been met but more than doubled. Cambodia is aiming to vaccinate 10M people which is around 95% of its adult population and around 60% of its total population (as the median age is as low as 26), however higher targets may be taken if children are also vaccinated.

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