So, the first group is mortality, which is “clearly associated with COVID-19, where the virus is fully identified and where, either during life, or a post-mortem positive test for a new coronavirus infection has been made.”
The second group, according to Golikova, includes cases in which the coronavirus was not identified, but "the course of the disease is highly likely that death occurred from COVID-19."
She explained that the data for these two groups were combined. The number of "such deaths in April, according to today, is 1675 in Russia as a whole, of which 1136 are where COVID-19 is 100% confirmed by all the data."
At the same time, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that the data of pathological anatomical autopsies from the regions will still be received, so the numbers in the second group may change.
The third group is associated with “other causes of death,” that is, from those diseases “that a person suffered during his lifetime, but these people had a positive test for coronavirus.”
“In this group of diseases, we were clearly guided by the recommendations of the World Health Organization, classifying the main causes of death with the data of pathological and anatomical autopsies,” said Golikova.
She said that the third group is currently "estimated at 1,038 cases," but that "so far is another cause of death."
This group was divided "into two more groups, according to other important conditions that could be the cause of death from the underlying disease."
“In the process of postmortem autopsy, we will see what was the main cause of death, and, of course, when we publish the official data, we will already be able to answer the question, how many“ covert ”deaths are there, and how many those to which COVID-19 had nothing to do with it, ”concluded Golikova.
Earlier, the Moscow Department of Health said that the mortality rate from coronavirus infection in the city in April ranges from 1.4% to 2.8%, depending on the calculation method.