COVID-19: Russia Sees Record Daily Deaths As Regions Struggle

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Russia reported Tuesday a record high 442 new coronavirus-related deaths as the country’s regions struggled to cope with overflowing morgues and medicine shortages.

While Europe has reintroduced new restrictions in response to a second wave of coronavirus infections sweeping across the world, Russia has refused to enforce a new nationwide lockdown.

Read also: Russia Conducted Over 47.2m COVID-19 Tests – Official

Health authorities on Tuesday recorded 22,410 new infections making Russia’s virus caseload the fifth-highest in the world with some 1.95 million registered infections.

The total virus fatalities stood at 33,391.

Russia has reported a much lower virus fatality rate compared to other badly hit countries and critics have accused the government of downplaying the severity of the health crisis.

Demographic data for March-September shows an excess of more than 117,000 deaths year-on-year, suggesting that the actual number of fatalities could be much higher.