The Latest: Virus infects Cambodians who went on UN mission

Cambodia's Health Ministry announced Friday it has confirmed four new cases of the coronavirus, all members of a Cambodian military force that had been stationed in the African nation of Mali on a peacekeeping mission for the United Nations.

Cambodia's Health Ministry announced Friday it has confirmed four new cases of the coronavirus, all members of a Cambodian military force that had been stationed in the African nation of Mali on a peacekeeping mission for the United Nations. The three men and a woman were members of a team that had worked on land mine clearance. They were among 80 members who arrived back in Cambodia on July 10. The four were confirmed on Thursday to be infected.

Cambodia since 2006 has sent more than 6,000 soldiers to participate in demining and engineering work in U.N. peacekeeping operations in the Middle East and Africa. Officials have explained the deployments are partly in gratitude for a massive 1992-1993 U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cambodia that oversaw a transition from civil war to political stability. Cambodia has confirmed 202 cases of coronavirus with no deaths. There have been no recent cases of local transmission. All new cases have involved arrivals from abroad, virtually all of them Cambodians but also including two U.S. diplomats.