Russia ‘s latest statistics on coronavirus deaths have shown that more than 100,000 people with coronavirus COVID-19 he had died in the pandemic by December. This number is much higher than previously reported by government officials.
According to data released Monday by the Russian state agency Rosstat, a total of 116,030 people with COVID-19 died in Russia between April and November. The number included cases in which the virus was not the leading cause of death and in which the virus was suspected but not confirmed.
The data also showed that the number of deaths from all causes in the first 11 months of this year increased by 229,700, or almost 14%, compared to the same period in 2019.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said at a government meeting on Monday that the increase reported by Rosstat is mostly related to coronavirus.
“I would like to note that over 81% of the increase in mortality during this period (between January and November) is related to COVID and the consequences of COVID infection,” Golikova said.
Golikova’s comment suggests that approximately 186,000 deaths may be related to coronavirus.
Both Rosstat’s number and Golikova’s assessment are much higher than the 55,827 pandemic deaths reported by the Russian government’s coronavirus working group, which include deaths in December.
The relatively low number of deaths of the Russian working group, which is reflected in the figures published by the World Health Organization, raised questions among experts in the country and abroad whereas the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Russia has become one of the highest in the world.
Western critics and the media have claimed that the Russian authorities could have falsified the figures for political purposes in order to reduce the size of the outbreak – accusations leveled at the authorities.
Russian officials attributed the differences between the numbers reported by the working group and Rosstat to different counting methods. The working group told Interfax news agency in August that their number included only deaths in which COVID-19 was the main cause.
The officials also said that the task force uses the data collected from the medical units, while Rosstat receives its numbers from the civil registry offices where the process of registering a death is completed.