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MOSCOW: The city of Moscow said on Wednesday (May 13) that it had attributed the death of more than 60 percent of COVID-19 patients in April to other causes, as it defended what it said was the superior way in that Russia counted the number. of people killed by the new virus.
At 242,271, Russia has the second highest number of confirmed cases in the world after the United States, something it attributes to a massive testing program that it says has conducted nearly 6 million tests.
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But with 2,212 coronavirus deaths, Russia also has one of the lowest death rates in the world. Moscow, the epicenter of the country’s outbreak, accounts for 1,232 of those deaths.
The disparity between the high number of cases and the relatively low number of deaths has led critics of the Kremlin and various Western and Russian media outlets to question the veracity of Russia’s official death statistics.
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Data released over the weekend shows that the total number of deaths recorded in Moscow increased sharply in April compared to the same month last year and was also significantly higher than the number officially confirmed as caused by the new virus, leading to new suspicions.
The Moscow Health Department acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that the number of deaths in April, 11,846, had been 1,841 higher than the same month last year and nearly tripled the number of people registered as killed by the virus.
But he flatly denied that he had been dishonestly lowering the death toll from coronavirus in the Russian capital. Tatyana Golikova, Russia’s health minister, has also denied any falsification of the statistics.
Unlike many other countries, the Moscow health department said so, and Russia performed post-mortem autopsies on 100 percent of deaths where coronavirus was suspected to be the main cause.
“Therefore, post-mortem diagnoses and recorded causes of death in Moscow are ultimately extremely accurate, and mortality data is completely transparent,” he said.
“It is impossible in other COVID-19 cases to name the cause of death. So, for example, in more than 60 percent of deaths, the cause was clearly for different reasons, such as vascular failure (such as heart attacks), stage 4 malignancies, leukemia, systemic diseases involving organ failure, and other incurable fatal diseases. “
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He said 639 people in Moscow had died in April as a direct result of the coronavirus and its complications like pneumonia.
Interfax news agency reported Wednesday that Russia’s foreign ministry wanted official retractions from two western newspapers that had published what it said was incorrect information about the country’s coronavirus death rate.
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