PHNOM PENH (XINHUA) - Cambodia's Covid-19 total caseload surged to 60,959 on Sunday (July 11) after 981 new infections were reported across the country in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

A total of 21 new fatalities had been confirmed, taking the national death toll to 902, the ministry said, adding that another 815 patients had recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 52,475.

The ministry's secretary of state and spokesman Or Vandine warned of a large scale community transmission if people are relaxed about preventive measures.

"We must act responsibly together now to reverse the situation. A large scale community transmission is in front of us," she said on social media.

World Health Organisation's representative to Cambodia Li Ailan said relaxing public health and social measures too quickly and lifting them too early would result in a surge in Covid-19 infections.

"Cambodia's achievements in vaccination are significant, but relaxing other Covid-19 measures too soon means losing some of the gains that the vaccines have made," she wrote on Twitter.

The South-east Asian nation launched its Covid-19 vaccination drive on Feb 10, with China being the key vaccine supplier. To date, 4.84 million people, or 48.4 per cent of the 10 million targeted adult population, have been vaccinated, according to the health ministry.

"I'm very pleased to see the speed in Covid-19 vaccine roll-out in Cambodia. Looking forward to another important milestone soon of five million people having received the first dose of the vaccine," Ms Li said.