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Cambodia

Child Protection in Emergency Contingency Plan 2020-2021

Attachments

1. Introduction and Situation Summary

The 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak is an ongoing global outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by the SARS coronavirus. The disease was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019, spreading to every province-level administrative division of the country by 29 January 2020. On 30 January, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern following an increase in the number of cases outside China. As of 22 June 2020, over 8,546,919 cases of the disease have been confirmed in more than 209 countries and territories, 456,726 confirmed deaths in more than 209 countries and territories, with major outbreaks in mainland China, Italy, South Korea, Iran and USA. In Cambodia more than 129 cases have been reported as of 22 of June 2020, 127 cases have recovered and there have been no deaths. Cambodia have experienced extraordinarily heavy rains, creating severe flooding in several areas of the country including 2011. From the latest data collected by the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), eighteen out of twenty-four provinces have been affected annually.

In 2011, 331,765 households (over 1.6 million people) have been affected and 46,403 households evacuated. This includes 443,068 children, of which 231,735 are girls. There have been 247 drowning fatalities; more than half were children under 18 years old. Some 405, 686 hectares of rice fields have been affected with 232,377 hectares reported as damaged, representing 9.4% of total crops. It has been reported that food prices have increased in flooded areas, due to increases in transport costs.

Children in particular are at high risk of being negatively affected by disasters; and among children, especially those under five years. Young children who experience extreme stress in their early years are at greater risk for developing cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties later in life, which also reduces and delays their overall developmental processes. In addition, during emergencies children are at a greater risk of abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and lack of protection, violence, suffering, and death. According to the scenarios agreed by HRF participants as the most likely Cambodia would have to face, the Protection in-Emergency Contingency Plan will address the risks of floods, drought, storms, migration and epidemics.

In case of floods, humanitarian partners expect to address a caseload of 1,500,000 affected persons. For droughts, the estimation is of 600,000 persons affected and for storms 180,000 persons affected. The 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak is an ongoing global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by the SARS coronavirus. The disease was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019, spreading to every province-level administrative division of the country by 29 January 2020. On 30 January, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern following an increase in the number of cases outside China. As of 22 June 2020, over 8,546,919 cases of the disease have been confirmed in more than 209 countries and territories, with major outbreaks in mainland China, Italy, South Korea and Iran. More than 67,974 people have recovered and more than 456,726 have died.

At present, there are many unknown factors to predict trajectory of COVID-19. Two scenarios, however, are most likely to occur.

  • Scenario 1: Efforts to contain the transmission largely succeed in China and other countries with confirmed cases. Cambodia may see sporadic imported cases, but no or very limited spread with containment efforts.

  • Scenario 2: Subsequent transmission following imported cases result in localized transmission and clusters of cases. With control efforts, such situation may persist for several months and decline, or may shift to the Scenario 3.

  • Scenario 3: Containment efforts slows the spread of the virus in a country, but the virus continues to transmit from person to person resulting in widespread community transmission.