Today (15 June), Mongolia reported 2386 new COVID-19 cases. The daily infection rate continues to rise; the country hit the 2,000 threshold on 12 June. The latest confirmed cases, which were all locally transmitted, brings the overall national tally to 80733; of today’s reported infections, 1685 were in Ulaanbaatar, the rest were in the provinces.

Regarding daily deaths from COVID-19, today there were 11 new fatalities; this brings the nationwide total to 380.

Children are accounting for more than 30 percent of the recent daily cases and two children aged 8 died of COVID-19 this month. Furthermore, the breakdown of children confirmed with coronavirus in a day is as follows:

118 children aged up to 4,

201 children aged 5-9,

198 children aged 10-14

101 children aged 15-17

Therefore, Mongolian health officials are allowing the Pfizer vaccine for 16-17-year-olds with the contest of their parents. The majority of 16-17 year-olds are now planning to take the general entrance exam to enter higher education or to study abroad.

Separately, Mongolia started a vaccination roll-out for pregnant women after two died of COVID-19.

Mongolia launched a national vaccination campaign in late February with a target of 60 percent coverage. So far, more than 1,891,800 people in the country have received a first dose, and over 1,642,600 have been fully vaccinated.