The capital, Moscow – the most affected city in the country – lifted strict foreclosure measures last week.
Moscow:
On Saturday, Russia more than doubled its official number of coronavirus deaths for April to 2,712 after changing the way it classifies deaths.
Authorities have warned that the death toll in May would be even worse in Russia, which has the third highest number of cases with 520,129.
The country reported 8,706 new cases on Saturday after its number of new infections peaked in mid-May.
The capital, Moscow – the most affected city in the country – lifted strict foreclosure measures last week.
The death toll in Russia has been much lower than in other countries with large epidemics, raising questions about the possible underreporting of deaths.
April figures from Rosstat, the official statistics agency, include 1,270 deaths caused by the virus.
But they now also include deaths where the victim tested positive for the virus, but it was not the leading cause of death.
In April, there were 435 deaths where the virus had a “significant influence” and 617 where it was present but did not play a major role, the agency said.
The statistics also include 390 cases where the person was initially tested negative for the coronavirus, but it was later found to be the leading cause of death.
The number announced for April was 1,152.
Russia had previously released a total of 6,829 pandemic deaths, a preliminary figure based on daily figures.
Officials, including First Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, said the change in the way deaths are counted follows recommendations from the World Health Organization.
Russia had previously attributed its low mortality figures to mass testing and its practice of performing autopsies to establish the cause of death.
The new April figure represents a 2.6% death rate among those infected, said Golikova at a television conference on Saturday.
The mortality rate for May will be higher, she added.
“The main blow will fall in May and probably in the first half of June,” she said.
“Doctors are now fighting for the lives of citizens, especially those on respirators.”
On Wednesday, the Moscow Department of Health reported that 5,260 people died in May, using the new method of classifying deaths from viruses – a 3.8% death rate.
Official death statistics for May are not yet available for the whole country.
The state statistics agency has delayed the release of death figures for April, the first full month of the Russian epidemic.
Golikova said earlier that this was due to the fact that regional laboratories were still processing the results of the autopsy.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
