Roughly 60 percent of Mongolians have been fully vaccinated, however, the deadly Delta variant of Covid-19 is still spreading in the country of three million. According to Health Ministry, the Delta variant is now being detected in 10 percent of daily cases; these are fluctuating between 1000 and 2000 in Mongolia.

This week, mutations of Covid-19 are confirmed in 10-20 percent of PCR positive samples. The Delta variant accounts for 10 percent of all confirmed samples.

Separately, results of 38 out of 260 samples sent to Japan have revealed 32 Alpha variants, two Delta variants and 4 new types of mutation first detected in Mongolia.

In recent days, 70-80 percent of all cases in Mongolia have been confirmed in the 21 provinces. Two western Mongolian provinces, namely Bayan-Ulgii and Khovd have been especially hard hit by Covid-19 since the end of July as local tourism began. According to officials, daily Covid-19 cases have been sharply raised in Khovd province after the Danshig Naadam festival was organized locally last week. As for Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia’s only majority-Kazakh province, the boost in transmissions has been attributed to the many weddings; these are always large-scale events.