Russia: Employees who refuse to vaccinate may be given unpaid leave

The Russian Minister of Labor has announced that employees who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in Russia’s mandatory regions, may be given unpaid leave, amid a rapid epidemic and a slow vaccination campaign.

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« Si les autorités d’une région rendent la vaccination obligatoire pour certaines catégories de travailleurs, un employé non vacciné pourra être suspendu », a déclaré Anton Kotiakov aux médias russes samedi, des propos reproduits la charés denemangram Epidemic.

He explained that their suspension will continue for the duration of the compulsory vaccination decree.

Faced with a rising number of cases, the city of Moscow and its first region in Russia this week were making vaccination mandatory for employees in the service sector.

Since then, seven other local entities, including St. Petersburg and its region, have taken similar measures, according to Russian media.

After two consecutive days of record infections, Moscow recorded a slight decrease on Sunday with 8,305 cases recorded within 24 hours. That’s still more than two weeks ago, when about 3,000 daily cases were recorded.

According to the authorities, this outbreak is due to the delta variant, which appeared in India, which affects nearly 90% of new patients according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

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

Nationwide, the country recorded 17,611 new cases.

This outbreak is favored by a grueling vaccination campaign, the Russians are highly skeptical of vaccines, due to the lack of restrictions for several months and the non-compliance with the rules of distancing and wearing masks.

Since December and despite the availability of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, barely 13% of the population has been vaccinated according to the Gogov website, which collects data from regions and the media for the lack of official national statistics.

Russia, with 129,361 deaths recorded by the government, is the deadliest European country. The statistics agency Rosstat, which has a broader definition of COVID-related deaths, has recorded about 270,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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