Mongolia cancels Naadam Festival over coronavirus

AKIPRESS.COM - Mongolian Cabinet has made the decision to cancel this year's National Naadam Festival on July 2 session, Montsame reports. Regarding the decision, Spokesperson of the Prime Minister Ch.Bolortuya said, "At its previous meeting, the Cabinet had made the decision to celebrate the National Naadam Festival in an online format. Despite the plans to organize the event without an audience, the Ministry of Health and scholars have made the conclusion that it would gather some 12,000 people, creating the risk for about 3,000 people to become infected. Thus, in support of the State Emergency Commission's suggestion put forth yesterday, the Cabinet has decided to postpone the event until next year."
With this decision, Naadam festival celebrations will also be postponed in the rest of the country, and the costs saved from the budget allocated for its celebration will be spent on healthcare. However, no changes have been made to the decision to mark a total of nine days between July 10 and 18 as non-working days.