Official tally of April coronavirus deaths in Moscow doubles

The official tally of April coronavirus deaths in Moscow doubled after authorities said they conducted post-mortem examinations, BBC reported Thursday.

The Russian city’s death toll for April reached 1,561, a jump from the previously announced 639 deaths that month. The city’s health department emphasized that the new toll contained even the most “controversial, debatable” cases, officials said.

The Moscow health department said it had confirmed coronavirus as the cause of death in 169 April cases where original tests were negative for the virus, according to BBC. Officials also said 756 people who died of other causes that month had tested positive for coronavirus, so they predicted the virus was a “catalyst” in the deaths.

The new method of counting could increase the number of coronavirus deaths across the country, although Moscow has been the hardest hit area in Russia, according to BBC.

The city’s health department reportedly underscored that the new count put Moscow’s coronavirus mortality rate under 3 percent, saying it was lower than comparable cities. But officials did say the May numbers would be higher, BBC reported. 

Russia has confirmed at least 379,051 cases, leading to at least 4,142 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The country has the third most number of cases in the world, behind Brazil’s 438,238 and the U.S.’s more than 1.7 million.