Borders to remain closed until December 31

Mongolia’s State Emergency Commission has decided to extend the country’s heightened state of readiness until the end of the year.

A government repatriation flight. (Credit: NEMA)

The decision effectively means the international border will remain closed until 2021 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Restrictions on arriving travellers, including Mongolian citizens, will remain in place, including a mandatory 21 day quarantine in government-designated facilities. Incoming flights will remain restricted to government-controlled charter flights repatriating Mongolians from abroad.

Mongolia has recorded just 339 cases of COVID-19, all of which were amongst travellers returning from overseas. There have been no deaths and no cases of community transmission. This record makes Mongolia one of the most successful case studies globally in responding to the pandemic.

The achievement is all the more remarkable given Mongolia shares lengthy land borders with China, where the virus originated, and with Russia, one of the pandemic’s current epicentres.