Russia requires shots for some

Only about 11 percent of population has been fully vaccinated

MOSCOW — They tried grocery giveaways and lotteries for new cars and apartments. But an ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-june still has fallen short by one-third.

So now, many regional governments across the vast country are obligating some workers to get vaccinated and requiring the shots before people can enter certain businesses, like restaurants.

As many Western countries lift coronavirus restrictions and plan a return to normal life after mass vaccinations, Russia is battling a surge of infections — even though it was the first in the world to authorize a vaccine and among the first to start administering it in December.

Daily new cases have grown from about 9,000 in early June to about 17,000 on June 18 and over 20,000 on Thursday and Friday.

Officials have blamed Russians’ lax attitude toward taking necessary precautions and the growing prevalence of more infectious variants. But perhaps the biggest factor is the lack of vaccinations.

Over 21 million people, or about 14 percent of the population of

146 million, have received at least one shot as of Friday. According to figures from earlier this week, only 16.7 million, or about 11 percent, have been fully vaccinated.

Experts say those numbers are due to several factors, including the public’s wariness of the rushed approval and rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine; an official narrative that Russia had tamed its outbreak; criticism on state TV of other vaccines as dangerous; and a weak promotional campaign that included incentives such as consumer giveaways.

In light of the surge, 18 Russian regions made vaccinations mandatory this month for employees in certain sectors, such as retail, health care, education, restaurants and other service industries.

Moscow authorities said companies should suspend without pay employees unwilling to get vaccinated, and they threatened to temporarily halt operations of businesses that don’t meet the goal of having 60 percent of staff get at least one shot by July 15 and both shots by Aug. 15.

In other developments:

■ The Israeli Health Ministry reinstated an indoor mask mandate Friday in response to an uptick in infections. On Thursday the country had 227 new cases, the first time Israel had confirmed more than 200 cases in a single day since April. The Health Ministry also recommended people wear masks in large outdoor gatherings and that unvaccinated or high-risk individuals not take part in large events.

■ The head of the World Health Organization lamented the lack of coronavirus vaccines being immediately donated by rich countries to the developing world. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that there was nothing to discuss during a recent meeting of an advisory group established to allocate vaccines.

■ Parts of Sydney were set to go into lockdown late Friday as a coronavirus outbreak in Australia’s largest city continued to grow. Health authorities reported an additional 22 locally transmitted cases and imposed a weeklong lockdown in four areas, saying people could leave their homes only for essential purposes.