Russia: rising mortality in the city of Moscow

In a Moscow hair salon, June 9, 2020. REUTERS / Evgenia Novozhenina

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With more than 15,000 deaths in Moscow, this is an increase of almost 60% compared to 2019. Important clarification from the city authorities: more than 5,000 deaths are linked to the coronavirus, a figure twice as high as what that had been previously announced.

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With our correspondent in Moscow, Daniel Vallot

Officially, the coronavirus killed 2,700 people in Moscow last month. But the report made public by the city authorities tells a whole story. Because the city's health department adds 2,500 deaths to this figure, coronavirus patients whose death was not caused directly by the disease, and who therefore had not been taken into account in the statistics.

Since the start of the epidemic, Russia has adopted a very restrictive way of counting coronavirus deaths: only a direct link between Covid-19 and the death being taken into account, the figures put forward by Russia very quickly aroused the skepticism of observers. The most critical accusing the authorities of wanting to deliberately minimize the toll of the disease. Faced with these criticisms, the Moscow city hall therefore decided to make a more precise table public.

On arrival, the balance sheet for the disease is twice as high as the figures previously announced. This brings the death rate from the disease in the Russian capital from 2 to almost 4%. A much better result, however, specifies the press release from the Moscow city hall, to those registered in New York, London or Madrid.

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  • Russia
  • Coronavirus

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