Mongolia to operate chartered flights to bring more nationals home amid pandemic

ULAN BATOR, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia is planning to operate at least 10 chartered flights in November to bring home more nationals stranded overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

More than 1,900 Mongolian nationals are expected to return home on the planned flights, according to the ministry.

Following its suspension of international commercial flights, Mongolia has brought more than 26,100 nationals home on chartered flights, buses or trains from different places around the world.

The Asian country has decided to extend the country's heightened state of readiness, including the suspension of international passenger flights for two more months until the end of this year.

As of Tuesday, the country has reported a total of 340 COVID-19 cases, all of which were imported, mostly from neighboring Russia.

No local transmissions or deaths have been reported in Mongolia so far.