Russia’s low official toll draws skepticism

Russia’s official death toll of about 6,950 from the coronavirus is far below many other countries, even though its reported 529,000 infections is behind only the United States and Brazil.

The paradox has led to allegations that Russian authorities might have falsified the numbers for political purposes to play down the scale of the outbreak. Even a top World Health Organization official said the low toll in Russia “certainly is unusual.”

Russian authorities have bristled at the suggestions. “We have never manipulated the official statistics,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

Still, several factors could contribute to Russia’s low virus mortality rate, including the way it counts deaths.

An autopsy is mandatory in Russia in every confirmed or suspected case of COVID19, with a determination on the cause of death made by a commission of specialists, said Dr. Natalia Belitchenko, a pathologist in the region around St. Petersburg.

She deals with coronavirus deaths almost daily, but said only about 20% of them have been attributed to COVID19. In other cases, the virus was determined to be only an underlying condition.

Unlike Russia, some countries’ official death count includes those who had COVID19 but died from other causes, said Dr. Michael Ryan of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

“It will be important that the Russian authorities review the way in which death certification is done to reassure themselves that they are accurately certifying deaths in the appropriate way,” he said.