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In almost no other country in the world, the coronavirus is currently spreading faster than in Russia. Moscow authorities registered 11,000 new infections on Sunday alone. This means that Russia has exceeded the 200,000 infected crown trademark. According to Johns Hopkins University, the country ranks fifth behind the United States, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom in the total number of reported infections. If the trend continues, Russia should overcome the three critical points of the European crown at the beginning of the week and jump to second place in the table.
The staggeringly low death tolls reported from the Putin kingdom, on the other hand, seem miraculous. The Russians officially count only 1,915 Covid-19 deaths. For comparison: in Italy and Great Britain there are more than 30,000 deaths each with a similar number of infected people. How do Russians have a mortality rate of less than one percent of those infected, while all other severely affected countries have significantly higher death rates?
The Russian government’s statement is: Because we handle the crisis very well. “The death rate shows that the system is working and that medical personnel, doctors, nurses and paramedics are clearly doing their duty,” said Health Minister Mikhail Muraschko, according to the Bloomberg news agency. Furthermore, Russian government officials justify the divergence of numbers with the high test rate. For example, “patients with a mild course and those without symptoms could be quickly identified and isolated,” which had significantly reduced the spread of the virus in public and in certain risk groups, said the Ministry of Health and the competent regulatory authority Rospotrebnadsor.
Doubtful statistics
However, critics refer to the very idiosyncratic way of counting Russians. Because while elsewhere everyone who had Covid-19 at the time of death is included in the statistics, even if he had other serious illnesses, it seems to be the other way around in Russia. “If someone dies of a heart attack but is also diagnosed with Covid-19, the official cause of death is a heart attack,” said Sergei Timonin of the International Laboratory for Population and Health at the Moscow Higher School of Economics (HSE). . “In other words, not all deaths of people with a crown are listed as crown deaths.”
Local media also reported cases in which pneumonia was cited as the cause of death even though the deceased had tested positive for a crown. For example, a 36-year-old journalist who died in Perm in the Urals on March 31 was recorded as “double-sided pneumonia” as the cause of death. This only changed to Covid-19 when one of her friends publicly reported a positive test shortly before her death.
There are also doubts about the reliability of some virus tests carried out by private laboratory companies and clinics. Since the end of April, internet giant Jandex has also been offering free trials at home. Furthermore, the Russian health system is far from being as stable as the authorities claim. Russian doctors criticize the lack of protective equipment in hospitals. Others report that medical personnel will be forced to continue on duty if they test positive for Corona.
Critics live dangerously
But critics of crown management apparently live dangerously in Russia. In the past few weeks, two doctors have already died and, in inexplicable circumstances, ran out of a hospital window after making critical comments. A third doctor, who had also criticized, was also seriously injured by a lintel. He is in critical condition with a broken skull.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin apparently wants to send the signal to the population at all costs that the situation is completely under control. Despite the rapid increase in the number of infected people, the one-month shutdown he scheduled ends Tuesday. Numerous industrial companies and construction sites are allowed to reopen, while many stores are still closed.
“Russia has done everything possible to delay the climax of the epidemic,” said Yevgeny Timakov, an infectologist and government adviser. “We closed our borders and started monitoring the infected immediately.” This was a victory for a few weeks “to isolate high-risk patients and organize hospital beds.” The final death rate will be “a third of the European”, he predicted.
