Vladimir Putin says he does not support 'mandatory vaccination' against COVID-19

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on June 30, said he opposed introducing mandatory vaccination policy, a view that comes in contradiction to health experts in a country battling sluggish inoculation rates. “I do not support mandatory vaccinations,” Putin told Russians during his annual phone-in broadcast on television adding that local authorities were already taking critical steps to ensure immunization against coronavirus. In addendum, he denied the possibility of a nationwide lockdown asserting that localized safety measures and precautions were well in place.

Russia, where Delta Variant has created havoc, has reported a total of 5,514,599  cases out of whom 5,000,393 have died while 4,889,450 have recovered.  Authorities earlier Wednesday reported 669 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, a record number of fatalities for the second day in a row, according to a government tally. One of the pandemic hotspots is the city of Saint Petersburg, which is due to host a Euro 2020 quarter-final on Friday in front of thousands of fans, many of them flying in from abroad for the match.

'Listen to specialists' 

Meanwhile, Putin also addressed widespread vaccine scepticism in the country and urged Russians to listen to “specialists,” and not rumours.  The 68-year-old asked people to trust homegrown vaccines over foreign jabs namely those by Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca/Oxford.  According to the President, many 23 million residents have been inoculated against COVID-19 till now.

With recent outbreaks in the country, Kremlin has claimed that the increase is a result of people’s reluctance to get vaccinated and "nihilism". Last week, Kremlin warned that people who do not get vaccinated against the coronavirus or have low immunity against respiratory illness would be unable to work at any place in Russia. Addressing a press conference, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov further stressed that discrimination was “inevitable” in the case of such people as they are ought to jeopardize the health of those around them. "The reality is such that discrimination will inevitably set in. People without vaccination or immunity will not be able to work everywhere. It is not possible. It will pose a threat to those around them," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters in Moscow.

Image: AP