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| - The mayor of Moscow complained Friday of the "astonishing" number of people refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus despite continued illnesses and deaths. Russia registered the world's first coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V in August 2020, but vaccine scepticism is a major problem in Moscow and other Russian cities. "We continue getting sick, people keep dying, but they don't want to get vaccinated," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a video released on Friday. "The percentage of those vaccinated in Moscow is lower than in any European city." Sobyanin pointed out that Moscow was the first world capital to launch a mass jab campaign but that of its some 12 million residents, only 1.3 million had been vaccinated. In the capital Russian-made vaccines are available for free to anyone who wants them, with vaccination centres set up at prominent sites including shopping malls and parks. Authorities have even introduced some incentives to encourage people to get jabs including small cash payouts to the elderly. But a majority of Russians are not planning to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, pollsters say, highlighting the difficulties of the country's immunisation campaign. According to a recent survey by Russia's leading independent pollster Levada-Center, 62 percent of Russians are reluctant to be vaccinated with the Sputnik jab, touted by President Vladimir Putin as "the world's best". Levada also said that 56 percent of Russians are not afraid of getting the coronavirus. Putin, 68, has repeatedly urged Russians to get the jab and said he himself was vaccinated in private. Russia has lifted nearly all virus-related restrictions and many Russians are refusing to wear masks on public transport and in other public places. Russia has been among the countries hardest hit by Covid-19, and some experts say authorities vastly underreport coronavirus fatalities. As of Friday, Russian health officials had reported more than 4.9 million coronavirus cases and more than 117,000 deaths. as/mm/nrh
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