No decision on mandatory vaccination in Russia has been made yet, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
"No decision on the matter has been made yet. We'll see how the situation unfolds," he said, when asked how the Kremlin viewed a proposal put forward by the Russian Association of Retail Companies and the Association of Internet Trade Companies that vaccination against the coronavirus should be mandatory but free even at private hospitals.
The Russian presidential spokesman pointed to statistics that "currently are no cause for optimism." "So we will continue to keep an eye on the situation," TASS cited Peskov as saying.
According to the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center, Russia recorded 1,159 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since the onset of the pandemic. A total of 40,096 new cases were confirmed in the past day, with 8,440 reported in Moscow.
