Mongolia: Mongolians voiced their concern about the high rates of poverty caused by the 14-day lockdown imposed on Ulaanbaatar since April 10th, which was expanded to May 17th to curb the spike of Covid, as a substantial number of workers lost their jobs and sources of income due to the continuing lockdown and the stop of buying and selling. The number of people infected with Corona rose to 37,285 cases, while the number of deaths reached 115, which is a serious indicator in a less than 4 million people country.
Galbadrakh a Business owner said, “It has been a huge letdown for us because we run our business with the help of bank loans and as usual we expected people to buy winter gear at the beginning of winter. So we got our loan and purchased winter clothes without knowing there would be a spread of COVID cases in Mongolia. As a result, we failed to sell most of the goods we had already purchased before everything went downhill. My regret is similar to many business owners like us. So I think the government should reinforce lockdown even stricter than it is now and start vaccinating with full force so that we could work soon.”
Gandelger a Teacher said “Since the beginning of November last year I have been in lockdown. I work as a teacher in one of the private colleges. I feel that the most harmful effect of lockdown is kids in primary schools have a lot of catching up when they would start school year possibly next year. My opinion is Mongolian government must put even stricter policy during so-called lockdowns so COVID cases won’t get higher even if we’re in complete lockdown. This time April to May lockdown is supposed to be strict but I see not strict anywhere.”
Damdin the Mongolians Citizen said, “I remember that the first two strict lockdowns were actually as ‘strict’ as they were supposed to be. But after the National Holiday ‘Lunar New Year’ people’s attitude towards strict lockdown slackened greater than before and cases have been reported even higher and higher in recent months. Due to the so-called lockdown cases would not stop being high and as a result, people would sit home and lose their only chance to work. Some of the middle-class people are getting poorer and poorer because of lengthening lockdown and rising cases daily. We see no real resolution to the problem today.”
Source: A24 News Agency
