Moscow orders mandatory vaccinations amid Covid surge

By Fernando Salcines

Moscow, Jun 16 (EFE).- Russia ordered Wednesday mandatory vaccinations for employees of the service sector in Moscow.

The move comes amid a reluctance among the population to get vaccinated and a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases.

“Due to the extremely difficult epidemiological situation with Covid-19, the chief state sanitary doctor in Moscow decreed the mandatory vaccination of workers in the service industry,” Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a statement.

More than 70 people have died in the past 24 hours, according to Sobyanin.

Vaccination is “a personal matter (…) as long as you sit at home. But when you go out into public places and have contact with people, willingly or unwillingly, you become an accomplice of the epidemiological process. The link in the transmission chain of a dangerous virus,” he stressed.

Moscow has imposed additional health measures to curb the spread of the virus such as closing restaurants and bars for dinner service.

In his visit to a hospital in the Russian capital, Sobyanin warned there has been a drastic rise in cases and hospital admissions with serious condition have increased by 70%.

Although Russia has developed four coronavirus vaccines including Sputnik V and single-dose Sputnik Light, the country’s vaccine rollout that kicked off in January has been slow.

Sixty-two percent of the Russian populations are not willing to be inoculated by Sputnik V, according to a survey carried out by the Russian Levada research organization in May.