MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Mongolia's economic recovery was possible thanks to the successful vaccination campaign in the country, which included the use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh said in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Thursday.
"For emergency use, Mongolia registered 7 vaccines, including Sputnik V. Despite difficulties in their country, our Russian friends shared the vaccine with us, for which we are very grateful. The vaccine has already been used, it brings positive results," the president noted. According to him, "recently the [economic] recovery is taking place which demonstrates the benefits of this vaccine and the correctness of the strategy to combat the disease."
The Mongolian president recalled that for almost two years since the beginning of the pandemic the country has been hit hard, in particular, the number of jobs has decreased leaving many unemployed, and the pace of economic growth has slowed down. Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh noted that before the pandemic, the economic growth rate reached 7.3%, and in 2020 the country's GDP decreased by 5.3%. "Vaccination plays an important role in returning to normal life. Since September of this year, we have resumed full-time classes in educational institutions, combining them with distance learning. [We] provided an opportunity for the gradual opening of various exhibition venues, mass leisure facilities, and service sector institutions. In the future, we are going to completely return to our former life," he explained.
According to the head of state, 66% of Mongolia's population has been vaccinated - this is one of the highest levels in the world. "Certainly, there are those who are against preventive vaccinations. We have democracy, pluralism of opinions. But the majority still actively joined the immunization campaign," he said.
"We could demonstrate the effectiveness of the vaccine to our citizens, we told them about its advantages. Mongolians didn’t just heed the advice, they understood and embraced [this idea]. That’s why they began to voluntarily come to the health centers themselves, and as a result we were able to provide mass vaccination at the level of 2/3 of the population. Now they have started revaccination. I am confident that in the future this will lead to a reduction in the number of hotbeds of disease in the country," he concluded.
The vaccination campaign in Mongolia started in February; it aims to achieve immunity in at least 60% of all residents.
Sputnik V was registered in Russia on August 11, 2020 and became the world's first officially registered coronavirus vaccine. At the moment, the drug is registered in 70 countries with a total population of 4 billion people.