MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Compulsory vaccination of some categories of citizens against coronavirus, similar to Moscow measures, will be introduced in other regions if necessary. Now it is being introduced in Tula, Head of the Russian Consumer Rights Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) Anna Popova said Friday.

"The compulsory immunization of risk groups [which] has been introduced in Moscow, the Moscow region, Sakhalin, Kemerovo. And today it is being introduced in Tula, this is important. We will use this tool, if necessary, in any other constituent entities," she said.

She stressed that vaccination will stop the spread of the virus. "We can see by the example of the regions, by the example of Yakutia, where… our colleagues managed, by organizing mass vaccination at the proper level, to stop the pandemic and today we see a decrease in the incidence for the third week," Popova added.

Popova added that Moscow and the Moscow Region take all necessary anti-coronavirus measures. "As for the epidemiological situation today, you see of course that the situation in major agglomerations - like Moscow, the Moscow Region — is extremely complicated. And we take all measures aimed at its stabilization today," she said.

Moscow is in first place among the Russian regions in terms of the number of coronavirus cases. On June 16, chief sanitary doctor of the capital Elena Andreeva ordered 60% of employees of enterprises working in the fields of trade, services, public catering, housing and communal services, transport, education, and entertainment to vaccinate against coronavirus.

Earlier on Friday, Russia reported 17,262 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since February 1, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said. The total case count has reached 5,281,309. There are currently 302,205 active coronavirus cases in Russia.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.