Cambodia’s 115 Hotline: Successful COVID-19 Digital Response

An existing hotline in Cambodia has been scaled up for COVID-19 Digital Response, going from 500-600 calls per day to 18,000 calls on peak days. Roughly 75% of callers access the health education menu and 25% are reporting suspect COVID-19 cases/symptoms.

Cambodia CDC is using the hotline as a primary first point of contact for all potential COVID-19 cases in the country – surveillance officers have staffed up to answer calls around the clock, screen callers, and direct them to appropriate rapid response teams/contract tracing teams for verification and testing.

As testing is still very limited, this approach is helping them reduce the overall burden on the health system – trying to give people the education and screening they need remotely.

Expanding the 115 Hotline has allowed the Cambodian government to efficiently and effectively implement a response to the outbreak in their country. The ability to respond quickly, and reduce the burden of wasting critical time looking for or developing new solutions is just one of many.

This article lists several reasons for the success of the hotline.

Source: ICT Works

Date of Publication: June 17, 2020