Not
much to report on this beautiful Monday night. The Rossouw household basically
does school in the mornings, peel mangoes, and clean the yard and house. I went to
town this morning and everything seems normal as many businesses are already
open but most of the market is still closed. The local Pub-street, a hangout
for foreigners is closed most of the time. Looking at my local friend’s posts,
I can see that they start to move around and even bike riders are on the road
again. Us foreigners are advised not to go out yet, so we are waiting on the government
to lift some restrictions. We are very grateful for this soft approach from the
government. It seems it pays off.
Please pray for my friend Heang’s dad. He broke his
leg, quite badly about 4 years ago and it did not heal yet. He experiences a
lot of pain and cannot walk. I just heard that the hospital he went to is closed
due to the virus. So we need to wait it out. Pray for a miracle for him, it’s a
long time that he struggled with his leg.
Please pray for Toinette’s brother Quinton. He went to
the doctor again for a colon and gastroscope and they took out some polyps. He
is waiting for the results to come back. Pray for him for a clean bill of
health. Also pray for his brother in law, Bernard who is in the hospital due to
his diabetes. Did not hear anything from him yet.
Please pray for Gideon as he gets really bad allergies,
not sure why but it affects his daily school a lot. Poor guy is sneezing a lot.
We give meds but nothing works. School is already a difficult one without sneezes
so when that comes it becomes an impossible task.
One really positive thing happening is that the rain
started. It seems that this year the monsoon will start earlier. Cannot wait as it
makes sleeping in the night more bearable. Due to the late rain, lots of farmers
lost their crops of cashew nuts. We are sad for them but we hope that next year
will be better. Being a small-time farmer is not easy here in Cambodia.
Enough said. Let us hear from you as some of you are
still on lockdown, especially the Namibians.
Love
Rossouw-clan
Kingdom’s neighbors may start to ease
restrictions
Cambodia’s bellwether neighbors – Thailand and Vietnam
– have started to propose easing extreme COVID-19 restrictions that have
devastated local economies and greatly affected civil society because of
ultra-low rates of new infections and no new deaths last week.
The Kingdom’s closest trading partner – Vietnam – is
already lifting restrictions on small gatherings (under 20 people) and
restarting buses, taxis and regular domestic flights. Although people must
continue wearing masks in public, schools will stay closed for several more
weeks and international flights will remain grounded. This is less than one
month after Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on March 30 declared
COVID-19 a nationwide pandemic and urged authorities at all levels to focus on
efforts to contain the threat.
In Thailand, the contentious nightly curfew (set from
10pm to 4am) is set to expire on Thursday with the Thai government meeting
today to decide whether to extend the lockdown or discuss the relaxation of
some restrictions. However, Governor Pakkarathorn Thienchai the mayor of
Thailand’s Chon Buri province – which includes the well known seaside town of
Pattaya – reportedly already issued orders last week to ease some of the
restrictions imposed, citing the “improving situation”.
According to local media, he said the town should
reopen so people can resume activities which present a “minimal risk of disease
transmission”, such as local markets, fresh and dried food areas, ready-cooked
food vendors and farm produce sellers. Mobile food stalls can also open for
business. “All business operators will be required to wear face masks, follow
the health guidelines and must display their ID cards, or passports if they are
foreigners. The ID cards must bear the “Buri Ram Healthy” sticker,” he added.
Locally, many are also now starting to feel that the
economic fallout, maybe, creating more damage than the potential health
benefits of ongoing restrictions. With Cambodia yet to record a single death
and no new cases since the April 12, those who have lost their jobs and
business or seen a large reduction of income are now questioning the extreme
health measures. From a global context, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam (and
Laos for the matter with zero recorded deaths) have so far surprised many
health and policy experts by recording much lower figures than first expected
during the initial outbreak.
And, while admittedly, COVID-19 testing in the region
has been relatively much lower than in other health systems, such as in Europe
and the United States, the numbers of cases are still very low. As health and
policy experts undertake hard decisions and weigh the balance between the
Kingdom’s economic and health needs, it appears the development of the virus
over the next few months will prove too be a litmus test for businesses as they
look towards the remainder of 2020 and beyond.
According to each government’s respective health
ministry, as of the weekend, all three countries with a combined population of
180 million had recorded fewer than 3,200 reported cases and a total of 50
deaths. https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50717221/kingdoms-neighbours-may-start-to-ease-restrictions/
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