The death toll from Covid-19 in Russia could be three times higher than previously thought, according to one of the country’s top politicians.
New data released by Russian statistics agency Rosstat on Monday showed that the number of deaths from all causes between January and November increased by 229,700 compared to the same period last year.
After the figures were released, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova was quoted by the Russian agency Interfax, saying that more than 81 percent of this increase in mortality in this period is due to Covid-19 and the consequences of the disease.
This means that the number of deaths associated with the virus is at least 186,000, or about three times more than previously reported. This would also give Russia the third highest Covid-19 death rate in the world.
The official death toll in the country, reported daily by the government’s coronavirus crisis center, was 55,827 on Tuesday.
It has previously been questioned as being very low by some observers, as Russia has the fourth highest number of cases in the world, behind the USA, India and Brazil, but its death toll is substantially lower than in these three countries.
So far, Russia has remained free of a national blockade, despite reports from hospitals across the country struggling with the flow of patients with Covid-19, as the Kremlin hopes that the launch of its Sputnik V vaccine will bring the epidemic under control.
Elsewhere, as the number of people receiving the Covid-19 vaccine continues to grow, the world is once again watching the first people in the world to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
The first two patients in the UK to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Margaret Keenan and William Shakespeare, were due to receive their second doses on Tuesday to achieve full immunity.
Keenan and Shakespeare received unprecedented publicity earlier this month, when Britain became the first nation to launch a clinically approved Covid-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, the UK reported a record number of new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, reaching 40,000, while the British government is struggling to contain the new strain of the virus that scientists believe is 70% more transmissible.
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Over the weekend, the European Union launched a mass vaccination effort aimed at vaccinating its 450 million citizens as soon as possible, with health professionals and household residents from across the bloc among the first to get the vaccines.
But there have been some hiccups along the way.
In northern Germany, eight workers in a nursing home received five times the recommended dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, district Vorpommern-Rugen officials said in an online statement on Monday.
Four have already been admitted to the hospital for observation as a precautionary measure after presenting flu-like symptoms.
“I deeply regret the incident,” said district administrator Stefan Kerth in the statement. “This individual case is due to individual errors.”
NBC News contacted Pfizer for further comments.
The incident came after some German districts refused to use the vaccines received over the weekend, on suspicion that the cold was stopped during delivery. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored at ultra-low temperatures to remain viable.
Meanwhile, China, where the virus first appeared almost a year ago, has reported seven new cases of coronavirus infection in the capital Beijing, where authorities have ordered the testing of hundreds of thousands of residents.
City officials have already asked residents not to leave the city during the Lunar New Year holiday. China, which has so far reported lower numbers and deaths than many other countries, has canceled major meetings, such as sporting events and temple fairs. Cinemas, libraries and museums operate at 75% capacity. The government also discourages business travel.
The virus is also generating new concerns in South Korea, where an additional 40 coronavirus patients have died in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since the pandemic began.
South Korea’s previous daily high for Covid-19 deaths was 24, reported on 21 and 22 December.
Some observers say that the increase in the number of fatalities reflects an increase in cluster infections in nursing homes and long-term care centers, where they are elderly with underlying health problems.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tatyana Chistikova contributed.