Cambodia avoids coronavirus carnage, but faces economic disaster

World Bank forecasts pandemic could sink nation into 1st contraction since 1994

20200602 Cambo

A daughter and mother in a rice paddy near Svay Chek village, outside Phnom Penh, on May 7. The pandemic has revealed Cambodia's urgent need for a functioning welfare system. © AP

SHAUN TURTON, Contributing writer

PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia is enjoying a public health success four months after detecting its first coronavirus case, but the pandemic's impact is setting the stage for an economic disaster in the nation of 16 million.

The country, with one of Southeast Asia's poorest health systems, has avoided the type of fast-spreading outbreak that has overwhelmed several developed nations.

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