Virus cases rise in Russia as crisis eases elsewhere
U.S. states accused of fudging or bungling COVID-19 testing data
MOSCOW—As the coronavirus outbreak eases in western Europe and parts of the U.S., cases are rising steadily in Russia in a crisis that has damaged President Vladimir Putin’s standing and stirred suspicion that the true death toll in the country is being concealed.
Russia is now behind only the United States in the number of reported infections. Cases are also spiking in such places as India, South Africa and Mexico.
On Tuesday, new hot spots emerged in Russia, and the country recorded nearly 9,300 new infections in 24 hours, bringing the total to almost 300,000, about half of them in Moscow. Authorities say over 2,800 people with COVID-19 have died in Russia, a figure some say is surely higher.
Some experts argue Russian authorities have been listing chronic illnesses as the cause of death for many who tested positive for the virus. Officials angrily deny manipulating statistics, saying Russia’s low death toll reflects early preventive measures and broad screening. Nearly 7.4 million tests have been conducted in the country of 147 million people.
Meanwhile, public health officials in some U.S. states are being accused of bungling infection statistics or even using a little sleight of hand to deliberately make things look better than they are.
In Virginia, Texas and Vermont, for example, officials said they have been combining the results of viral tests, which show an active infection, with antibody tests, which show a past infection.
Public health experts say that can make for impressivelooking testing totals, but does not give a true picture of how the virus is spreading.
In Florida, the data scientist who developed the state’s coronavirus dashboard, Rebekah Jones, said this week that she was fired for refusing to manipulate data “to drum up support for the plan to reopen.” In Georgia, the department of public health published a graph around May 11 that showed new COVID-19 cases declining over time in the most severely affected counties. The daily entries, however, were not arranged in chronological order, but in descending order.
The surges in Russia come as much of Asia, Europe and U.S. have been easing lockdowns to restart their economies. U.S. autoworkers, French teachers and Thai mall workers are among hundreds of thousands of employees back at work with new safety precautions.
Cases are still rising across Africa, where all 54 nations have seen confirmed infections for a total of over 88,000 cases and 2,800 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.