On 7 January, Mongolia has registered the country’s first cases of the Omicron variant. At least 12 COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant have been detected in Mongolia, reported director Ts.Bilegtsaikhan, director of National Center of Communicative Diseases. Ten of the infected people were peacekeepers who have recently returned home from South Sudan, while the remaining ones were those who have arrived in the country onboard flights from Istanbul and Bangkok.

The country of three million recorded its first five locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus omicron variant two days after detecting imported cases.

Mongolia started offering a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens on a voluntary basis on Friday after the first 12 cases of Omicron variant have been confirmed in the country.

Mongolia’s COVID-19 tally has reached 396,337 after 1,208 new infections were reported over the past 24 hours.

Less than 400 infections had been reported daily until Tuesday, and however, the number of daily infections has been resurging in the country in recent days due to New Year celebrations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed 2,074 lives so far.

So far, 66.5 percent of Mongolia’s population of 3.4 million have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while 929,705 people aged over 18 have received the third dose.