Russia on Monday said its coronavirus death toll was more than three times higher than previously reported, making it the country with the third highest number of deaths in the world.
For months, President Vladimir Putin has boasted about Russia’s low death rate from the virus, saying earlier this month that they had done “better” work in controlling the pandemic. the western countries.
Experts, including medical professionals and data scientists, have been questioning the official statistics for months, accusing the government of playing out of the country.
On Monday, Russian officials admitted that was true.
Statistics agency Rosstat said the number of deaths from all causes recorded between January and November had risen by 229,700 compared to the previous year.
“More than 81 percent of this increase in deaths over this period is due to COVID,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, meaning that some 186,000 Russians have died from COVID-19 in 2020.
The data also showed that more people died in Russia in November 2020 than in any other month since such data began to be collected 16 years ago, the Moscow News newspaper reported.
Musicians perform in front of a hospital to congratulate pediatric patients on the New Year, in Moscow. The country is battling a growing second wave of COVID-19 [Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters]
Too many deaths – the difference between all deaths recorded in 2020 and previous years – is seen as one of the most reliable indicators in the number of people who have died as a result of the pandemic.
While Russia has confirmed more than three million cases of coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic – the fourth highest case in the world – it reported only 55,265 deaths and was criticized for just being lists COVID-19 deaths where autopsy has confirmed the virus as a primary cause.
Alexei Raksha, a demographic who left Rosstat in July, told AFP news agency last week that the Russian health ministry and the consumer health ministry had falsified coronavirus numbers.
New Rosstat figures mean the third highest death tax in the world is now since COVID-19 after the United States, where 334,618 people have died, and Brazil, with 191,570 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
‘Follow the rules’
Despite the growing wave of the second wave of disease, authorities have been reluctant to ban it nationwide for fear of further damaging an already difficult economy.
The government expects the economy to shrink 3.9 percent this year, while the Central Bank expects a faster decline.
At his annual press conference at the end of the year earlier this month, Putin rejected the idea of pushing for the kind of lockout that many European countries have been pushing into. for the Christmas holidays.
“If we follow the rules and requirements of health regulators, we will not need any locks,” he said.
Although strict measures have been imposed in some cities, authorities in many areas have limited restrictions on the use of mascara in public places and the reduction of mass gatherings.
A member of the Russian armed forces receives the Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine against coronavirus infection. The country is raising its hopes on the vaccine to prevent the pandemic [File: Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters]
But many Russians adhere to social distance rules and in the last few weeks the country ‘s behavior has taken over poorly funded hospitals in the areas.
The country has fulfilled its hopes of ending the revolution over vaccination, and the massive deployment of Sputnik V injections, named after a Soviet-era satellite.
The country launched the program earlier this month, bringing in high-risk workers between the ages of 18 and 60 without any serious illnesses.
Over the weekend people over 60 were given the green light to get the bullet.
On Monday the developer of Sputnik V, the state – run Gamaleya research center, said about 700,000 doses have been released so far for domestic use.
However, Russia has not said how many people have received the vaccine so far and according to recent surveys by the state voter VTsIOM and the polling body of the Levada Center only 38 percent of Russians expect to get the bullet.