ANKARA

Cambodia has allowed its citizens to get a third COVID-19 booster shot to build “real herd immunity,” according to the state-run Agence Kampuchea Press news agency.

In a statement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said a third dose of vaccines will be offered to people aged 12 and above.

“In order to rapidly build a ‘real herd immunity’ which is a key foundation to protect the people’s lives from COVID-19, particularly the Delta variant or other variants, as well as to get prepared for the plan to reopen all sectors and to live with COVID-19 in a new normal norm, the Royal Government decides to launch the COVID-19 booster shot policy to the general public aged 12 years old and above,” the readout said.

The campaign will run until mid-2022, and is conducted on a voluntary and free-of-charge basis, it added.

Nearly 8 million people out of the 10 million eligible have been fully vaccinated with the UK-produced Oxford-AstraZeneca, the US-donated Johnson & Johnson, or the Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines. The Southeast Asian country has a population of 16 million.

The kingdom also began vaccinating children between the ages of 12 and 17 earlier this month, and up to 2 million are expected to be inoculated by early November.

With 423 new COVID-19 cases and six related deaths, the national tally on Thursday reached 90,958 infections including 1,841 fatalities.