New data from the country’s statistical agency, Rosstat, show that in the first 11 months of 2020, there was an increase of over 229,700 deaths in Russia than in the same period in 2019.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who is in charge of the country’s coronavirus response, said on Monday that “more than 81% of this increase in mortality during this period is due to Covid.” According to a CNN estimate, that means 186,000 Russians have died of coronavirus in recent months.
With a real Covid-19 death toll of 186,000, Russia would have the third highest number of any country in the world, after the United States and Brazil.
Golikova’s statement marks the first time a Russian official has acknowledged what critics have long suspected: that the true number of coronavirus deaths in Russia is much higher than the official number, which is below 56,000.
Russia has reported more than 3 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, but has maintained a relatively low fatality rate due to the way it has treated the pandemic.
Critics have expressed overwhelming skepticism about Russia’s official figures, saying the issue lies in the counting method that allows coronavirus-infected patients to be attributed to other causes and allows officials to claim a smaller number.
For example, Rosstat said 35,645 people with coronavirus or suspected coronavirus died in November, but added that in about a third of deaths, Covid-19 was not considered to be the leading cause of death or a major factor. in death.
Russia’s coronavirus working group, which publishes daily statistics on new cases and deaths using a different methodology from Rosstat, reported only 12,229 coronavirus-related deaths in November.
This method of counting differs from the guidelines of the World Health Organization, which stipulates that all deaths related to Covid-19 should be taken into account, unless there is a “clear alternative cause that cannot be linked” to the disease.