Over 10,000 deaths have been registered in Russia due to the new coronavirus (Covi-19), the authorities in Moscow announced on Saturday.
The exact number of deaths from the virus stands at 10,027, which is 167 more than Friday, the Russian government reported on its website.
Russia also confirmed that it had registered 674,515 cases of Covid-19, the third-highest number in the world, after the United States and Brazil.
Russia’s fatality rate is low, compared to the number of cases of infection and to other countries. This has raised questions about a possible underestimation of the deaths.
Russia explained that its lower figures, compared to Western countries, are due to the fact that it only counted, first of all, people for whom the main cause of death was the coronavirus, while other countries count almost all deaths of patients who tested positive.
Russia’s authorities stress that, since the epidemic arrived later in Russia, the country has had the time to prepare its hospitals and develop a massive policy of testing.
In its April death toll, the public agency Rosstat had doubled the number of deaths registered that month, after broadening the definition of deaths based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria. Moscow’s Health Department counted 5,260 deaths from Covid-19 in May by using this classification method.
The Brussels Times
