Russian officials acknowledged on Monday that the COVID-19 death toll was in fact more than three times what was previously reported, after months of president Vladimir Putin
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As The Guardian report, the state-owned statistics agency Rosstat said that the total number of deaths between January and November increased by 229,700 due to all causes compared to the previous year.
“More than 81 percent of this increase in mortality during this period is due to COVID,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, which would indicate a death toll of more than 186,000 Russians, reports The Guardian. The update means that Russia has the third highest number of deaths 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 other major countries affected.
The newspaper reported that the Russian government, despite the rising number of coronaviruses, is reluctant to order another national exclusion. Putin said during his conference at the end of the year: “If we follow the rules and demands of health regulators, we do not need any lockdown.”
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 vaccine against coronavirus. The Russian-made vaccine, called Sputnik V, showed promising results, but was criticized by medical journals for having short clinical trials.
Earlier in December, the 68-year-old Putin said he would delay vaccination of the vaccine due to a lack of research done on people over 60. However, the vaccine was approved this past weekend for people over 60, reports The Guardian.