Russian officials on Monday acknowledged that the country’s COVID-19 death toll is in fact more than three times higher than previously reported, after months of president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Putin receives Russian coronavirus vaccine Cold War double agent George Blake dies at 98 gun control hostage MORE holding the supposedly low death rate as a sign of the country’s success in the fight against the pandemic.
Like The Guardian reportedState-run statistics agency Rosstat said the total number of deaths from all causes increased by 229,700 between January and November from the previous year.
“More than 81 percent of this rise in the death rate over this period is due to COVID,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, who would point to a death toll of more than 186,000 Russians, The Guardian reported. The update means that Russia has the third-highest fatalities in the world, surpassed only by the US and Brazil.
Russian officials have so far confirmed more than 3 million cases and only 55,265 deaths, The Guardian noted, a number much lower than in other major affected countries.
The newspaper reported that, despite rising coronavirus numbers, the Russian government is reluctant to order another national lockdown. At his year-end conference, Putin said, “If we follow the rules and demands of health regulators, we don’t need lockdowns.”
Moscow is reportedly hoping to contain the virus through its vaccination program launched this month. Russia was the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine. The Russian-made vaccine, called Sputnik V, showed promising results but was criticized by medical journals for having short clinical trials.
Earlier in December, Putin, 68, said he would delay the vaccine due to the lack of research among people over 60. However, the vaccine was approved for people over 60 over the weekend, The Guardian reported.