Moscow makes vaccines mandatory, ahead of Biden-Putin meet
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This has come at a time when the country is focused on President Vladimir Putin’s summit meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden. The summit has taken the focus off the Covid crisis that is brewing in the country.
A few weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that the country will not make coronavirus vaccines mandatory, the capital city Moscow has ordered a contradictory order due to a 'dramatic' case rise.
"We simply must do everything to carry out mass vaccinations in the shortest possible time and stop this terrible disease, stop the deaths of thousands of people," said Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Wednesday.
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Authorities have recorded an alarming increase in coronavirus cases in the past few weeks. Due to this, Sobyanin has made vaccinations mandatory for the people working in the service industry.
This has come at a time when the country is focused on the president’s meeting with his US counterpart, Joe Biden. The meet has taken the focus off the covid crisis that is brewing in the country.
Putin has always claimed that Russia has handled the coronavirus pandemic better than any other country, but the Moscow Mayor has now claimed that the situation "continues to unfold dramatically".
"In connection with the extremely difficult epidemiological situation, the Chief State Sanitary Doctor for the city of Moscow today adopted a decree on the compulsory vaccination of workers in the service sector," Sobyanin said.