Source: Southeast Asian Nuggets Author: Tomoko
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, a country has shocked the world for successive intake of foreign cruises, and has returned to peace because the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has always remained at 1.
But in the past few days, this country suddenly became abnormal. The local government announced the suspension of classes, the public hoarding wave, the Ministry of Health sued the hospital, and gave out $800 million to rescue emergency...
Here, it is not the seemingly calm United States, nor the panicked Europe, but Cambodia .
Everything starts with the stone that stirs up thousands of waves - it is not a controversial cruise ship, but a Japanese man who successfully "escaped" from Cambodia.
On March 3, the man went to the hospital in Siem Reap , Cambodia for treatment due to cough and difficulty breathing, but the next day, he appeared at Nagoya Airport in Japan and was diagnosed with COVID-19.
The whole thing is comparable to a real-life magic that transfers instantly. Why could he leave the hospital? Why fly back to Japan?
Currently in Cambodia, one of the 44 people who have been in close contact with the Japanese man has been confirmed to be infected, which is also the first confirmed Cambodian. What’s even more worrying is that this Japanese man had been to Philippines and Vietnam within half a month before the diagnosis... Everything behind
tears open the loopholes in the system and lays down puzzles and bombs.
puzzle 1, where to get infected
The first thing I confirmed is that the confirmed Japanese man was not a passenger who disembarked from the cruise ship or a tourist, but a businessman who had been in Siem Reap for many years opened a Japanese training school locally.
Briefly look at his activity trajectory:
htmlOn February 16, the Japanese man came to Cambodia via Vietnam and developed fever symptoms around the 21st, but he did not go to the hospital, but went to the Philippines. As for what he did, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has not disclosed it yet.
After staying for 7 days, he returned to Cambodia and started to breathe on March 2. He went to medical treatment on March 3. That night, he flew back to Japan from Cambodia via Vietnam.
That is to say, before he showed symptoms on the 21st, he stayed in three countries. Where did he get infected? There is no answer yet.
puzzle 2, why "escape"
A spokesperson for the Cambodian Ministry of Health said that the Japanese man went to a private hospital in Siem Reap, but the hospital did not transfer the man to the Siem Reap Provincial Hospital for treatment, nor did he contact the Ministry of Health.
The implication is that the patient was released by this private hospital.
So the Ministry of Health said that a lawsuit may be filed against this hospital.
But the head of the private hospital felt that it should not be blamed, and pointed the finger at the Siem Reap Provincial Hospital.
According to the private hospital, when he saw that the man had a fever of more than 37 degrees and had symptoms of cough, he immediately called Siem Reap Provincial Hospital, but no one answered the answer, and the hospital then asked him to leave.
is another round of confusing past-off operations, but after a little understanding of the regulations of the Cambodian Ministry of Health, you may have a clue.
The Ministry of Health has previously stipulated that only medical institutions designated by the government have the testing equipment and conditions for the new coronavirus. If any suspected symptoms appear, they must go to these institutions for testing, and cannot go to private medical institutions.
In other words, private hospitals and clinics do not have the right to test, so they do not have the right to publish any "confirmation" information. If the regulations are violated, they will face punishment.
The precedent was that in early February, a Chinese man was misdiagnosed by a doctor in a private hospital in Xigang . After hearing the news, the Xigang government sent someone to collect blood samples from the Chinese for testing. The final result was negative. The hospital was finally sealed off for operating without a license and causing social panic. Behind the
vulnerability is the chaotic medical treatment mechanism between public and private medical institutions.
puzzle 3, why did you "escape"
What is worth exploring is that this Japanese man knew he was unwell, so why didn't he continue to look for a hospital for treatment, but instead made a hasty decision to return to China? What's more, from the data, the number of confirmed cases in Japan is 500 times that of Cambodia.
What is even more suspicious is that after getting off the plane in Nagoya, the man "sent" himself to the airport quarantine station.
I boldly guessed that the man chose to escape because he was worried about Cambodia's medical treatment. It is reported that after visiting the hospital, he suspected that he had contracted the new coronary pneumonia, so he immediately booked a plane ticket and flew back to Japan.
In contrast, Cambodia's medical resources, according to WHO statistics in 2015, the number of beds allocated per 1,000 Cambodians was only 0.71, far lower than other Southeast Asian countries (Thailand 2.1/1,000 people, Vietnam 3.1/1,000 people).
Cambodia has 5,500 qualified private hospitals, about 4 times that of public hospitals, but both infrastructure and professional staff are extremely limited, and a large proportion are tilted towards large cities and public hospitals.
Of course, Cambodia also has high-end private hospitals, but only rich people will go there, and they usually stay in Cambodia for minor illnesses and go to Thailand for treatment of serious illnesses.
In addition, in this country where the national medical insurance system has not yet been established and improved, the proportion of ordinary people who pay for medical treatment is 61%, and the insurance rate of commercial health insurance does not exceed 5% of the total population.
To sum up, the technology is not good and the cost is high.
But whether it is based on the above reasons or not, escaping with illness is always a dangerous and irresponsible decision.
Currently quarantined in Cambodia are employees and students of the Japanese training school run by the man, one of whom has been diagnosed.
There are hundreds of passengers on the same plane as this man. They all took the same plane with virus carriers without knowing it, and even had close contact. However, most of the passengers have flew to many countries such as the United Kingdom, South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan.
This does not include the other people the man has contacted in more than half a month before the official diagnosis, which adds up to thousands.
All signs point to the worst direction, this time, the Cambodian government has truly felt the threat of the outbreak.
"Be prepared for lockdown"
Before facing the COVID-19 epidemic, Cambodia, which has always been very heartbroken, suddenly became tense.
On March 4, the day Japan announced the man's diagnosis, Cambodia's top leader Hun Sen said that the government has made plans for measures such as lockdown to cope with the outbreak of the epidemic.
Two days later, the Cambodian government urgently allocated US$30 million as the anti-epidemic budget, including establishing a prevention system, purchasing medical equipment, setting up isolation areas, tracking suspected infected people, etc.
htmlOn March 10, Hun Sen announced that it had prepared 800 million US dollars of emergency funds to save the economic impact of the epidemic. The series of operations of
are very different from the previous situation when the "Westdam" was docked in Westport. At that time, Hun Sen dared to come to greet him without wearing a mask, and enthusiastically called on passengers to visit Siem Reap. After that, Cambodia continued to receive a series of foreign cruise ships to dock.
Hun Sen is confident that he will do this because Cambodia has tested all passengers on every cruise ship. As long as the result is negative, he will not worry.
Even later, a US passenger disembarked from the "Westdam" was diagnosed when entering the country of Malaysia . Cambodia also had the confidence to say it was a misdiagnosis. Finally, the CDC of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed that it was a misdiagnosis. Cambodia also asked Malaysia to apologize.
But this time, Cambodia put a risky but untested fish in the fish pond into the sea with his own hands, and then confirmed that it had infected another fish in the fish pond.
Fish pond owner is not calm.
htmlOn March 7, after the first local close contact was diagnosed with COVID-19, Hun Sen announced that all schools in Siem Reap will be closed from now on, and the Angkor Songkran Festival event originally scheduled to be held in Siem Reap during the Cambodian New Year in April.
The remaining fish also began to panic.
Previously, the public hoarding wave broke out in Japan and Italy, and it also appeared in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Many citizens went to supermarkets to buy rice, food and daily necessities, and grabbed masks, disinfectants and other epidemic prevention supplies online.
March 7, a large number of people lined up to buy grain in Wankelong Wholesale Market in Phnom Penh
At the same time, the news of pedestrians falling into the ground in public places many times has aggravated social panic. Although many have been denied the rumors, and although the Ministry of Health has repeatedly emphasized that the epidemic will not be concealed, similar rumors are still banned.
The approaching Vietnam and the Philippines have been quiet for nearly a month, and a wave of imported cases of COVID-19 have appeared one after another, and it has quickly turned to local transmission.
Vietnam maintained no new cases for 22 days, but it showed the 17th case on March 6, and as of March 8, there were 14 new cases. After no new cases in the Philippines, there were 17 new cases from March 5 to March 8 after no new cases in 27 days.
Looking at Southeast Asia and even the world, local transmission is a key turning point that attracts national attention . Singapore has raised the level of disease outbreak response system in response to this, and the Philippines has declared a national public health emergency.
But Cambodia is currently the only one who announced that it is ready for lockdown. If the situation is not controlled, Cambodia is likely to become the first country in Southeast Asia to need a "lockdown".
