AKIPRESS.COM - Amid concerns over the novel coronavirus outbreak, the State Emergency Commission (SEC) of Mongolia ordered to put off coal and petroleum exports in February until March 15, Montsame reports.

Heavy trucks loading coal on March 4 started crossing the border only through Zamyn-Uud border checkpoint after being fully decontaminated.

Today, the State Emergency Commission convened and decided not to resume coal shipment through border checkpoints because of lack of preparedness at some of the border checkpoints. For instance, Head of the SEC U.Enkhtuvshin pointed that building of disinfection facilities at some checkpoints have not been finished yet and it needs to be made sure that drivers of the freight trucks are ready to launch the shipments as the drivers themselves first had requested to stop the shipments due to fears over the outbreak.

It was earlier reported that once the coal shipment resumes, some temporary regulations should be followed. In particular, only companies satisfying certain safety requirements for the vehicles and their drivers would be allowed to continue coal export shipments with daily limits are set on the number of freight vehicles to cross the checkpoint.