Cambodia allows private hospitals, clinics to use rapid COVID-19 testing device amid spike in new cases

PHNOM PENH, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) on Thursday allowed all private hospitals and clinics to use rapid COVID-19 testing device after the Southeast Asian nation has seen a sharp rise in new infections. "At the request of the Private Health Care Association of Cambodia...and with the approval of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, the MoH allowed all licensed private healthcare service providers to use Rapid Antigen Test kits for COVID-19," Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in a statement.

He said the Rapid Antigen Test device for COVID-19 has been recognized and has been using by the MoH to test people who may have been infected by the virus and it provides results back in just 15 minutes. The approval was made after the MoH last week used the rapid test device to check people in virus hotspots in Phnom Penh and it gave results with a rate of accuracy similar to laboratory testing.

Cambodia logged 446 new local cases on Thursday, pushing the national total of infections to 8,193, the MoH said, adding that five more deaths have been confirmed, raising the death toll to 59. The MoH also saw 130 patients recovered, taking the overall number of recoveries to 2,924. Cambodia began an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb. 10. As of Wednesday, nearly 1.3 million people in the priority groups had been vaccinated against the virus, a government report showed

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