Russia: Employees who refuse vaccinations can be placed on unpaid leave

Employees who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine in parts of Russia may be put on unpaid leave, the Russian Labor Minister announced amid an epidemic and sluggish immunization campaign.

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“If health officials in an area make it mandatory to vaccinate certain categories of workers, the vigilante employee may be suspended,” Anton Kotiakov told Russian media on Saturday, Sunday’s comments overseeing the state Telegram channel situation. Pandemic.

He added that their suspension would last until the validity period of the mandatory vaccination decree.

The city of Moscow and its region, which is facing an increase in cases, became the first in Russia this week to make the vaccine mandatory for employees in the service sector.

Since then, seven other local organizations, including St. Petersburg and its territory, have taken similar action, Russian media reported.

After two consecutive days of record infections, 8,305 cases were reported in Moscow in 24 hours on Sunday. It was still two weeks ago, with nearly 3,000 daily cases reported.

According to officials, the outbreak is due to a delta variant found in India, which, according to Mayor Sergei Sobinin, affects almost 90% of new patients.

The number of new cases crossed 1,000 in 24 hours in St. Petersburg for the first time since the end of February.

Nationally, 17,611 new cases were reported in the country.

The outbreak was facilitated by the laborious vaccine campaign, with Russians becoming increasingly skeptical of vaccines, the absence of sanctions for months and non-compliance with distance regulations and the wearing of masks.

Since December and despite the availability of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, only 13% of the population has been vaccinated, according to the Gogov site, which combines data from regions and the media as there are no official national statistics.

Russia, the government has recorded 129,361 deaths, making it the most deadly European country. Rosstat, a statistical body with a broad definition of COVID-related deaths, has recorded approximately 270,000 deaths since the outbreak.

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