Yesterday, the government announced a lowering of the state of health emergency from “orange” to “yellow”, the national news agency Montsame reported. “With this decision, the country is opening its borders to international travel,” said Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene.

The move also means the lifting of restrictions on business.

The head of government listed the consequences of the anti-Covid measures for life in the country: a drop in exports and economic activity, rising unemployment, and the closure of businesses and schools.

At the beginning of 2021, the Mongolian government’s health policy had cost the current Prime Minister’s predecessor his job, after the broadcasting of images showing a young mother being transferred at -25 degrees Celsius in her pyjamas to a quarantine center with her newborn baby.

The country of 3 million people has imposed some of the most severe restrictions on the planet since the beginning of 2020, with the emergence of the epidemic in neighbouring China: closure of borders and confinement of the population on seven occasions.

Mongolia: The country is averaging 1,047 new infections every day, 28% of the peak infections – the highest average number of daily infections was reported on September 6.

There have been 456,737 cases of infection and 2,074 deaths related to the coronavirus in the country since the beginning of the epidemic.

Vaccination has since enabled the country to overcome the epidemic: 92% of adults are now fully vaccinated.

It should be remembered that the Mongolian government had implicated in March 2020 a French national, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the country, for not having respected his quarantine, an accusation rejected by his employer, the nuclear group Orano (formerly Areva).