Government decides to ease lockdown restrictions from May 8

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. At its meeting today, the Cabinet decided to downgrade the country’s coronavirus emergency regime level of current Red Level down to Orange Level starting from May 8 until June 5. Under the Orange Level regime, complete or partial heightened state of readiness is declared and operations of public and private organizations and individuals are restricted to a certain extent depending on the situation. Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the State Emergency Commission S.Amarsaikhan and Minister of Finance B.Javkhlan introduced about the Cabinet’s decision. Currently, 55 percent of the nationwide vaccination target- 2,067,292 adult populations have gotten the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 26 percent have received the second dose. The Cabinet also resolved to allocate MNT 3.2 billion for the purchase of necessary equipment and maintenance of the National Center for Communicable Diseases. With a view to return to normalcy as quick as possible, the Government is aiming to accelerate the vaccine drive. Therefore, it plans to complete involving the total adult population of Ulaanbaatar city in the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine within May 8 and rural citizens in the first and second dosage in June. Citizens’ engagement is so vital to complete vaccine drive, said the Deputy PM. “As the number of infection cases has not decreased, it was decided not to open the country’s border until June 1,” he added. Moreover, Minister of Finance B.Javkhlan informed that social welfare services will not be provided next month unless welfare beneficiaries are vaccinated. There are 211 thousand citizens who receive various welfares in Ulaanbaatar city. As of May 4, 80 thousand of them have not had the first dose. Moreover, 29 thousand out of 47 thousand adult citizens who receive food vouchers have not been involved in vaccination. Furthermore, the Cabinet decided to provide MNT 50,000 in cash to every citizen, who has been fully vaccinated, to support their health. Citing that the citizens’ involvement in vaccination has drastically gone down in the capital city, Finance Minister B.Javkhlan said, " A whole society should not be at risk due to unvaccinated citizens, even though the vaccine is given on a voluntary basis. Mongolia’s economy has expanded and reached MNT 40 trillion by manufacturing MNT 100 billion worth gross domestic product in a single day. But, we are losing 50 percent of our opportunity in time of the lockdown and 10-20 percent in normal period. We hope we will complete vaccinating 60 percent of the entire population by the half of this year to recover the country’s economy.”