Mongolia reopens borders for vaccinated travellers
ULAANBAATAR: Mongolia has reopened its borders to fully vaccinated international travellers, state media reported on Monday (Feb 14), 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-19 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.
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-19 vaccination campaign has since helped
turn the tide, with 92 per cent 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 sanitising remain in place.
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