Mongolia COVID-19 vaccines post-introduction evaluation (‎cPIE)‎, 19-30 September 2022

Overview

Mongolia, a Member State of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Western Pacific Region, swiftly introduced and extensively distributed COVID-19 vaccines, achieving a 70% coverage rate with the last dose of the primary series for its eligible population (18 years and older at the time) within four months of initiating the vaccination programme. However, coverage for the first booster dose plateaued from February 2022 as demand declined, particularly for the booster dose, due to a decrease in disease severity concerns, perceptions of vaccine effectiveness, and the spread of vaccine misinformation, among other factors. As of September 2022, nearly two years after the first domestic case was recorded in November 2020, Mongolia reported upwards of 980 000 confirmed cases and a case fatality rate of 0.21. This report evaluates Mongolia's COVID-19 vaccine introduction.