ANKARA

Over half of Cambodia’s population has received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the government said on Monday.

Close to 51% of the country’s 16 million people have been given a first jab, according to official data.

Targeting 10 million adults in the initial phase of its immunization drive, the Buddhist-majority country has administered first doses to 7,872,892 people, while 5,785,077 have completely been vaccinated, latest figures showed.

Authorities also launched a third booster dose campaign on Sunday for frontline workers in provinces bordering Thailand, which is in the grip of a devastating virus wave driven by the highly infectious Delta variant.

Cambodia is using China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs, as well as the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The country has reported 76,155 virus cases and 1,585 deaths to date.