On Friday (20 November), Mongolia’s Ministry of Labour and Social Protection announced that it has started providing food packages to households at risk of malnutrition amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In cooperation with the Mongolian Red Cross Society, the food packages consisting of white flour, rice, sugar, sunflower oil and other necessities, will be delivered to at least 1,000 poor households in the country’s capital city Ulaanbaatar, the ministry said in a statement.

According to World Bank data, the poverty rate in Mongolia stood at 28.4 percent in 2018, with more than 40 percent of the poor living in the capital,.

Mongolia entered a state of public disaster preparedness and imposed a nationwide 24-hour lockdown from 6 a.m., Nov. 12 (2200 GMT, Nov. 11) with effect until Dec. 1, after reporting its first locally transmitted COVID-19 case.

Mongolia had managed to prevent local transmission of the virus until this month, by closing its borders and enforcing strict measures. This has hit the economy hard; the coronavirus lockdown is expected to be furtherheavy blow to the poor.