Mongolia reopens borders for vaccinated travelers
A traveler shows his COVID-19 digital vaccination certificate | INQUIRER.net stock photo
ULAANBAATAR — Mongolia has reopened its borders to fully vaccinated international travelers, state media reported, rolling back coronavirus curbs that had kept the country isolated for two years.
The nation has implemented some of the world’s toughest anti-Covid measures since the start of the pandemic, largely sealing off its borders and imposing several lockdowns.
The curbs have battered its economy as businesses closed, exports plunged and hundreds of thousands faced precarious employment.
Mongolia’s cabinet approved a resolution downgrading the pandemic “state of readiness” from orange to yellow, effectively lifting all restrictions on business operations, state news agency Montsame reported Monday.
The move means the country of three million “fully opens its borders to international travel”, Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene said, according to Montsame.
Declaring Mongolia open to fully jabbed tourists and investors, he reportedly said the government would “put efforts into creating the necessary conditions to ensure safety… for all those arriving in the country for business and tourism purposes”.
Oyun-Erdene’s predecessor resigned last year during protests and public anger over the treatment of a coronavirus-positive woman and her newborn baby.
She had been transferred to a disease control centre in hospital pyjamas and plastic slippers despite temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius.
An aggressive Covid vaccination campaign has since helped turn the tide, with 92 percent of Mongolian adults now fully inoculated and more than half in targeted groups having received a booster, according to Montsame.
Mongolia has recorded 885,000 coronavirus cases and more than 2,000 deaths during the pandemic, according to World Health Organisation data.
The border reopening follows the easing of restrictions last month under the orange and yellow readiness levels.
Official advisories on wearing face masks, social distancing and hand sanitizing remain in place.
RELATED STORIES
Mongolian doctors trek to remote areas to give herders COVID-19 jabs
Mongolia reports first domestic coronavirus transmissions
Isolated and unpaid, Mongolian coal drivers queue at Chinese border
Mongolia to maintain strict virus regulations ‘until vaccine found’
For more news about the novel coronavirus click here.
What you need to know about Coronavirus.
For more information on COVID-19, call the DOH Hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.
The Inquirer Foundation supports our healthcare frontliners and is still accepting cash donations to be deposited at Banco de Oro (BDO) current account #007960018860 or donate through PayMaya using this link.
