Russia Calls for Emergency UNSC Meeting, Experts Concerned About Vaccine Hesitancy

LOCAL NEWS

• Russian Foreign Ministry says emergency UN meeting on Afghanistan is planned following the takeover of Kabul late last night with the Russian FM saying an immediate intervention from the UNSC was needed to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
  • Russia says it has no plan to evacuate Kabul embassy even as Taliban forces took the capital, but says it will not hurry to recognize the Taliban regime and will wait to see how it behaves.
  • Taliban leaders have provided assurances to Russia that its embassy would remain safe
• Russia reports 21,624 new covid cases and 816 deaths on Sunday, with incidence growing by 0.33%.
  • Medical experts say that persistence in case numbers has been due to high vaccine hesitancy and a lack of Kremlin pressure to get vaccinated in the lead up to State Duma elections in September.
  • Pace of vaccinations has dropped 60% in recent weeks with some 55% of Russians polled saying they do not want to be vaccinated.
  • Russia's vaccination rates stands at 20% fully vaccinated and 27% having had the first dose. At its current pace Russia will only hit 50% vaccinated by end-2021, vs initial 70% target by fall
• Russian FM Spox Zakharova says Moscow expects the UK to explain the reason for not issuing visas to Russian Journalists as tensions continue to rise. Zakharova said Moscow would respond in kind if the UK goes ahead with this policy