Moscow authorities have decided to make vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory for 60 percent of employees in the service sector, as coronavirus cases continued to surge in the Russian capital.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the situation in the city was evolving dramatically and urged people to get vaccinated in an effort to drive down hospitalizations and deaths.
Sobyanin on June 12 announced a nonworking week between June 15-19 in response to the spike in COVID-19 cases.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Moscow grew by 5,782 in the past 24 hours, amounting to 1,253,894 overall, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told journalists on June 15. The number of reported cases the previous day was 6,805.
A total of 75 fatalities were registered in the capital in the past 24 hours -- the highest figure since January 19. The overall number of deaths in Moscow has reached 21,125, the crisis center said.
More than 125,000 coronavirus deaths have been registered by authorities in Russia since the start of the pandemic, but many experts say officials vastly underreport fatalities.