PM: Effective lockdown could help vaccinate 1 million population in Mongolia within April

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On March 30, Prime Minister of Mongolia L.Oyun-Erdene worked at the National Cancer Center and National Center for Communicable Diseases. The Prime Minister become acquainted with the ongoing vaccination of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at the National Cancer Center. The 25,740 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which Mongolia received under the COVAX Facility, is being administered to organ transplant recipients, patients with chronic diseases, people with HIV and cancer patients. At the National Center for Communicable Diseases, L.Battur, General Director of the country’s main health organization responding to COVID-19, introduced about the current state of the COVID-19 transmission and if strict lockdown measures are not imposed, in all likelihood, the coronavirus infection rates will rise by 10 times at minimum by mid June compared to the current level. As the cabinet is expected to decide on March 31 whether to put in place another lockdown to curb the COVID-19 infections in the country from April 3 to April 18, PM Oyun-Erdene highlighted that the government has been adhering to principle of supporting the economy while avoiding any strict quarantine measures. “However, we must listen to our experts and scientists. If lockdown is placed, we must intensify the vaccination drive to vaccinate one million adult populations within April to make the lockdown effective. The PM also informed that the government will provide a total of MNT 2.8 billion as incentive pay to 2,230 healthcare workers and 1,100 resident doctors, who have been working on the frontline to combat COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 30, a total of 300,366 people in Mongolia or 15.2 percent of the target number of the total population have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines available in Mongolia, including Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech. The administration of the second doses will begin from April 10, reports the Health Ministry.