According to a new report by Russia’s State Statistics Agency, the country saw a record number deaths from coronavirus in July.
According to Rosstat, 50,421 people died from COVID-19 in the month. This is a sharp increase from December’s previous record of 44.435.
The agency stated in its report that 38,992 deaths could be directly attributed to this disease. Another 5,206 deaths were also attributed to the virus. However, more investigation is needed. In 1,449 cases, the virus played a role in the deaths, but it was not the primary cause.
Rosstat stated that the virus was not responsible for the deaths of the remaining 4,844 infected persons.
According to the report, Russia had 215,265 virus-related deaths by July 31, which is significantly more than the 180,840 reported by the national coronavirus taskforce. Russian officials claim that this is due to different counting methods. They state that the task force includes only deaths caused by COVID-19.
Officials claim that the task force also uses data from medical facilities, while Rosstat gets its numbers from civil registration offices, which are responsible for finalizing death registrations.
Russia has been slow to implement a vaccination program against COVID-19. Only 25% of Russia’s 146million people had received at most one vaccine dose as of mid-August. 20% were fully vaccinated.
Many regions have made vaccinations compulsory for certain workers in various sectors, such as those in government offices, health care, education and retail.
