Mongolia on Thursday (16 December) confirmed 285 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 386,258, according to the country’s health ministry. Five of the latest confirmed cases were imported from abroad and the remaining were local transmissions.

Meanwhile, two more COVID-19 patients over the age of 60 died in the past day, pushing the national death toll to 2,041.

COVID-19 infections serious enough to require hospitalization continued to trend lower. Currently, 2770 COVID-19 patients are being hospitalized across the country, while 4601 patients are receiving home-based care, according to the ministry. COVID-19-associated hospitalizations were highest in earlier this year when 40,000 people  hospitalized for coronavirus and many of them were in intensive care units.

Over 70 percent of Mongolia’s population of 3.4 million has received two vaccine doses, with some 40 percent of people over 18 years of age having received a booster.