Coronavirus: Russia prepares public for bad news on deaths

Russian will suffer a sharp rise in mortality figures for this month, as the coronavirus death toll rises.

Doctors work on a patient an intensive care at Moscow’s Filatov City Clinical Hospital. Picture: AP

Russian will suffer a sharp rise in mortality figures for this month, as the coronavirus death toll rises.

“There will be a significant mortality increase in May,” Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, referring to official analysis and the country’s coronavirus curve.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin also said the capital’s death toll for May would be considerably higher than the previous month.

His deputy, Anastasia Rakova, said later “the peak of mortality is usually delayed by two to three weeks after the peak of hospitalisations” for the coronavirus.

Russia registered 150 deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, its highest daily rate yet, amid criticism the authorities are under-­reporting deaths to play down the scale of the crisis.

Health officials have reported 3249 virus-related deaths, a fraction of the number in some European countries, while Russia has the second-highest number of ­infections in the world, after the US, with 335,882 cases. Other countries with lower numbers of cases and more modern health systems, such as Italy, have reported 10 times the number of deaths.

About 109,000 people are in hospital, with 2500 of those in ­intensive care. The number in hospital has risen from about 80,000 on May 6.

Some commentators said the statements were aimed at preparing Russians for much higher death figures. “Based on Golikova and Sobyanin’s words, they are preparing the public for adjustment of coronavirus death statistics,” tweeted rights lawyer Pavel Chikov.

“Amazing, isn’t it? Just two days ago this same Golikova said the epidemic had almost passed,” tweeted Kira Yarmysh, spokeswoman for opposition leader ­Alexei Navalny.

Russia says its lower virus death figures are partly down to mass testing that has identified many cases with mild or no symptoms. The government insists that it records causes of death meticulously based on the results of autopsies and according to World Health Organisation standards.

But experts say the methods used mean some coronavirus ­patients will be recorded with a different cause of death. There is a considerable delay in releasing statistics and official death figures for April will be available only on Friday.

Those figures are expected to give a clearer picture of whether there has been a large year-on-year increase in deaths not ­officially attributed to coronavirus.

AFP