Cambodia records first COVID-19 death over a year into pandemic

PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia reported its first official death from COVID-19 on Thursday, more than a year since the pandemic began and just as the country's legislature passed stiff new penalties for flouting virus protocols.

In a statement, the country's Ministry of Health said a 50-year-old Cambodian man died from the respiratory virus at Phnom Penh's Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital at 10.40 a.m.