The Ministry of Health reported that 139 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours. This is the lowest daily number of cases recorded in Mongolia since March 17, 2021.

Of the newly detected cases, 105 were confirmed in Ulaanbaatar city and 34 in rural areas.

As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mongolia stands at 384,870. Furthermore, one new COVID-19 related death has been reported, raising the country’s death toll to 1,944. Currently, 4,449 people are receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19 whilst 8,321 people with mild symptoms of COVID-19 are being isolated at home.

Of the total patients currently undergoing treatment at hospitals, there are 1,651 patients in mild, 2,187 in serious, 514 in critical, and 94 in very critical conditions.

The 30th Congress of the Mongolian People's Party (MPP) kicks off in the hall of ‘Ulaanbaatar Palace’ today, on December 06. 1245 delegates from 21 aimags, and nine districts of Ulaanbaatar have gathered for the Congress.

At the Congress, Chairman of the MPP, Prime Minister of Mongolia L.Oyun-Erdene has presented 'A new revival policy to stimulate economy’. Afterwards, MPP Secretary-General D.Amarbayasgalan will report the works carried out over the past four years under the theme ‘New Century Advanced Policy’.

As of today, the MPP has 278,716 members, which means one member of the congress is representing 224 MPP members. The eldest member of the 30th Congress is 92 years old and the youngest is 22 years old while 295 or 25 percent out of the total delegates are women. 200 people are participating in the conference with invitation.

Inner Mongolia saw 30 locally infected cases on Saturday, as two officials in the region were sacked after being held responsible for doing a poor job in curbing the spread of Covid-19.

According to China’s National Health Commission, there are an additional 42 locally infected cases within the mainland on Saturday, with five among them being asymptomatic infections.

Among the 42 cases, 30 were in Inner Mongolia’s Hulunbuir city, while four of them were asymptomatic infections.

Ten other cases were in Harbin city of Heilongjiang province, and two in Yunnan province.

Authorities of Manzhouli city within Hulunbuir city in Inner Mongolia announced on Saturday that infected cases include eight teachers and 19 students, and they previously visited multiple schools before their onset.

On the other hand, Manzhouli city authorities sacked Jalainur district Public Security Bureau deputy director Zhao Hui, and vice president of Manzhouli city general union Su Weidong, as they “lack awareness, failed to discharge their duties and delayed executing their job duties.”

In a statement, authorities said Jalainur district was arranging transport for some 100 close contacts of infected cases to collective quarantine at around 12.40am to 1.30am on Saturday, but Zhao did not start implementing the arrangement until 7am, “which greatly affected the transportation and clearing Covid-19 infections.”

Authorities also said Su, in charge of one of the quarantine centres in Manzhouli city, lacked a sense of responsibility and was unaware of the number and situation of people in the quarantine centre and was unable to implement measures to curb the spread of the disease.

Calls are mounting for strong punishment for four middle school students who have been accused of assaulting a classmate from Mongolia.

The four students living in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, whose identities were withheld, have been accused of beating the 14-year-old girl for about six hours starting at midnight, July 3.

The victim was a middle school student who moved to Korea from Mongolia about 10 years ago.

They tied the victim's hands and legs and punched her in the head and face multiple times, and wrote racial slurs on her forehead, according to Yangsan Police Station. The students filmed the act and later distributed the video among fellow students, offering to sell the footage for 5,000 won ($4), according to police.

A public petition was posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website, Thursday, calling for harsh punishment for the students and the disclosure of their identities. It has garnered over 170,000 signatures as of 2 p.m., Sunday.

"I demand a thorough police investigation into the case, followed by strong punishment of the four students. If they do not face legal punishment (due to their age) I want their parents to be held responsible," wrote the petitioner.

The police said they have handed two students over to prosecutors after charging them with group assault, Oct. 28. The other two were sent to the juvenile department of Ulsan District Court, as minors aged 14 or younger cannot be held criminally responsible under current laws.

Demand for coal is skyrocketing in China, which is driving new mining, coal stockpiling and widespread power cuts. This year, analysts estimate China will burn about 4 percent, or 160 million tons, more coal than the year before. First of all, a jump in power demand – as China’s economy recovered, demand for goods produced there has surged. And second, COVID – to understand that, needed to zoom out and look outside China to Mongolia.

Mongolian coal is more needed than ever in China because China cut off Australia, its other source of coal imports, as political punishment. Mongolia replaced Australia as China’s largest source of supply, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced the closure of the two main coal truck routes in May. China has also shut its borders to Mongolia to stop COVID transmission. And to ferry coal to China, Mongolian drivers must first live in sealed quarantine bubbles, really just tent camps, to prove they do not have the virus.

Mongolian coal exports to China have plummeted to just a third of what they were last year, pushing Chinese coal prices even higher. China has also tried to boost its own coal production, but it spent years closing down smaller, dirtier, unsafe mining facilities, meaning it can’t just press a button and order more coal to be produced. The upside is, this year’s power shortages have made it painfully clear to Beijing it needs to accelerate power reform measures.

During 2020, Mongolia’s total coal exports plunged by 22 percent to 28.6 million tonnes, well below the target set by Ulaanbaatar at the start of the year to lift exports to beyond 40 million tonnes last year. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was the chief reason for the plunge in Mongolian coal deliveries, Mysteel Global noted.

The coal trading between Mongolia and China was disrupted again from late November when a new wave of the pandemic hit both countries. As Chinese and Mongolian government authorities adopted immediate COVID-19 tests on truck drivers, coal transportation was disrupted again. Last year, the price trend of Mongolian coking coal price in China moved in almost the opposite direction to coal exports, according to Mysteel’s data. Through 2020, Mysteel’s price assessment for Mongolian processed coking coal with 10 percent ash, 27 percent volatile matter and 0.65 percent sulphur increased Yuan 180/tonne (USD 27.9/t) on year to Yuan 1,280/t at the border checkpoint and including the 13 percent VAT.

On 1 December, South Korean MBC television reported a serious case of bullying which fuelled anger among Mongolians. According to source, 13 year-old Mongolian girl has been beaten, tortured and poured alcohol in her mouth by four senior Korean students. They tortured the victim for six hours. The incident happened at one bully’s home in Busan city in July, 2021. Furthermore, the students sold video recordings of the victim being bullied to others for KRW 5000.

However, two of four Korean students were freed by South Korean court because they were under age to take criminal responsibility for their actions by law.

Today (3 December), some Mongolians have demonstrated peacefully outside of South Korean Embassy in Ulaanbaatar for demanding justice for the victim. The demonstrators handed their demanding letter to Lee Yeo Hong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Mongolia. The demands are included compensation and legal help to the victim and fair punishment.

On behalf of the Ambassador, Mr. Kim Chol-san, deputy chief of South Korean mission in Mongolia promised to take his responsibility as a diplomat and to cooperate with his government for bringing justice for the victim. He also promised to give an official report of the case results to the Government of Mongolia.

COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Mongolia, with below 500 new infections reported on average each day as result of high number of vaccination rate. According to Health Ministry, the number of new daily Covid-19 cases has plunged by 70 percent since peaking mid-September.

As of today, the coverage of first dose reached 70 percent, second dose – 67 percent and third dose or a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccines – 16 percent of the total population.

On Friday (3 December), Mongolia reported 3 deaths linked to COVID-19; the lowest since the country of 3.4 million confirmed its first local transmission in November, 2020. The Covid-19 is toll decreased by 4.5 times from the beginning of a year.

Furthermore, active cases of coronavirus are cut to 10 thousand from 66 thousand.

There have been 382,898 infections and 2,011 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.

At the Zamiin-Uud border checkpoint, trial operations of container handlers have begun to be carried out for the transport of containers between Mongolia and China, reports Deputy Prime Minister S.Amarsaikhan.

Following the completion of necessary preparations, freight will begin to be transported through the Zamiin-uud border checkpoint of Mongolia and the Erlian border checkpoint of China from December 5.

More specifically, the Deputy Prime Minister said during a press conference held on November 29, “As the matter concerning infections in Erlian is now under control, we agreed to resume the traffic of vehicles between the two countries. As for the agreement reached with the side of China for exchanging freight at the border, it will begin to be implemented in three days. A working group has been established to create correlation between the operations of inspection organizations working at the border region.”

However, as it was necessary to make further preparations, the transportation of goods and products through the border checkpoints have been postponed by two days.

Within the framework of his official visit to the Republic of India, Speaker of the State Great Khural G.Zandanshatar met with the country’s Minister of Steel Ram Chandra on December 2.

Minister Ram Chandra concurred with the view that some impacts of the pandemic have to be taken into account and that closer cooperation is needed to move the oil refinery project forward as planned.

Mongolia has been paying special attention to the realization of the project since the beginning. For instance, to intensify the project implementation and create the legal framework the State Great Khural approved the Bill on Supporting the Development of Oil Refinery in January 2021 and the Government of Mongolia approved Regulations on State Support to the Oil Refinery in August 2021.

The plant's engineering and design work has been completed, and the construction of non-technological facilities have begun in January, the Mongolian side introduced during the meeting. In addition, the project will focus on resolving logistics issues in phases and plans to complete the construction of a crude oil pipeline six months before the plant is commissioned.

The two sides expressed their commitments to achieve the desired results through mutual support and efforts as the project is of great importance to the further expansion of the strategic partnership between the two countries and will advance economic cooperation to a new level.

Mongolia imports oil products worth USD 1 billion a year. According to the preliminary estimation, as the money stays in the country, the exchange rate will stabilize, GDP will increase by more than 10 percent, and state and local budget revenues will be raised by USD 150 million. Moreover, 600 jobs will be created in addition to developing small and medium-sized businesses along with the establishment of the oil refinery.