Russia’s updated statistics on coronavirus-linked deaths show that well over 100,000 people with COVID-19 had died in the pandemic by December, a number much higher than previously reported by government officials. The data released on Monday by Russia’s state statistics agency, Rosstat, brought the agency’s count of people with COVID-19 who died between April and November to 116,030. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova told a government meeting Monday that the increase reported between January and November by Rosstat for the most part is related to the coronavirus. Both Rosstat’s count and Golikova’s assessment are much higher than the 55,827 deaths that have been reported by the Russian government’s coronavirus task force, including deaths that occurred in December.
