New data from the country’s statistical agency, Rosstat, show that, in the first 11 months of 2020, there was an increase of more than 229,700 more 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 Monday that “more than 81% of this increase in deaths over this period is due to Covid.” According to CNN calculations, that means 186,000 Russians died from coronavirus in those months.
With a real Covid-19 death toll of 186,000, Russia would be 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 admitted what critics have long suspected: That Russia’s actual death tax on coronavirus is much higher than the official tax, which is under 56,000.
Russia has reported more than 3 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 but has maintained a relatively low mortality rate as a result of its treatment of the pandemic.
Critics have expressed serious doubts about Russia’s official figures, saying the case lies with the counting method that allows deaths in patients with coronavirus infection to be identified for other reasons. , and allows officers to claim a lower tax.
For example, Rosstat reported 35,645 deaths from coronavirus or suspected coronavirus in November, but said Covid-19 in about a third of deaths was not the leading cause of death or the leading cause of death at all.
Russia’s coronavirus action group, which publishes daily statistics on new cases and deaths using a different approach than Rosstat, reported just 12,229 coronavirus-related deaths in November.
This method of counting differs from the guidelines of the World Health Organization, which states that all deaths associated with Covid-19 should be counted unless there is “another clear, non-binding cause”. to the disease.