Yesterday, the official Russian Statistics Agency announced that at least 7,444 people died from the new corona virus in May, a double more than what the health officials announced in Russia previously.
Russia faced criticism in May when it announced significantly fewer deaths than other European countries.
The officials considered that the reasons for the low numbers are due to the rapid response to the epidemic. The health authorities, which have maintained daily since March the announcement of numbers of injuries and deaths, have reported that 3,633 people died of the virus in May.
However, the official statistics agency, which issues late demographic data, released the day before yesterday a completely different outcome for that month.
She said that the new corona virus was the sure or likely "leading cause" of the death of 7,444 people who died in May. Another 5008 people diagnosed with the virus died from other diseases, although the virus was the "catalyst" in the deaths of 1,530 people from this group. The agency said that the total number of deaths in May was 172,914 across Russia, which is 18,000 more compared to the same month last year. The head of the statistics agency, Rostat Pavel Malkov, said that the death rate rose by about 12% in May on an annual basis.
He said in televised statements, "The death rate rose in 55 regions, and the largest increase was recorded in the first regions where the new Corona virus was detected."
Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Gulikova acknowledged that the Coruna virus is "the main reason for this increase." The difference in numbers is due to the adoption of different methodologies for registration. The May data comes after a similar inconsistency in the April data.
And Russia announced the day before yesterday, the total outcome of 713 thousand and 936 cases of infection and 11 thousand and 19 deaths of the virus.