Russia says many coronavirus patients died of other causes; some disagree

Liubov Kashaeva wearing a protective mask sprays antiseptic while tending plants at her family's country house near the town of Chekhov in Moscow Region, Russia - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters): Before she died in a Moscow hospital earlier this month, Liubov Kashaeva, 74, twice tested positive for the new coronavirus. Her death was not attributed to the virus, however. It was put down to the cancer she had been suffering from.

“The medical death certificate... said she died of a malignant tumour,” Kashaeva’s daughter-in-law, Daria Kornilova, said. “Coronavirus was not mentioned anywhere.”

Kashaeva is one of thousands of Russians infected with the novel coronavirus whose deaths have been put down to other causes.

Russia has registered the second highest number of infections globally, at 299,941 total cases, and 2,837 deaths. That produces a death rate of 1.88 per 100,000 Russians, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The equivalent US figure is 27.61 per 100,000 Americans, and 52.45 in Britain. Russia has defended the way it counts coronavirus deaths.

“We now know all the characteristics of COVID-19 sufficiently well,” pathologist Oleg Zairatyants, author of the Moscow Health Department guidelines for coronavirus autopsies, told Reuters.

“The result (of the analysis) is objective and pronounced by the commission... Unfortunately people are dying, but their cause of death is clear to us,” he said, when asked about deaths not being attributed to COVID-19 even when someone had tested positive for the virus.

However, the relatives of several deceased patients dispute that their loved ones would have died when they did had it not been for the virus.

Kashaeva had been diagnosed with late-stage bowel cancer in January. But she was due to start chemotherapy and the family expected to have more time with her.

On 3 May, Kashaeva was taken into hospital after feeling weak. Scans showed she’d developed pneumonia in both lungs, a common symptom of the coronavirus infection, and two tests were taken, coming back positive. On 8 May, Kashaeva died.

“Coronavirus killed our grandmother of course and we’re grieving,” Kornilova said. “If it wasn’t for coronavirus, with chemotherapy she would have held out for some time.”

Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak, has said that over 60% of deaths of people infected with the coronavirus in the capital city in April did not enter its death toll tally, and were put down instead to other causes.

Those cases occurred “as a result of an obvious alternative reason, such as vascular catastrophe (heart attacks and strokes), late-stage malignant diseases... and other incurable diseases”, it said.

The Moscow Health Department said the way Russia counted coronavirus deaths was more accurate than other countries and cited the benefits of a nationwide testing program which has seen over 7 million tests done.

The jump in the death rate could be attributed to a seasonal increase in acute respiratory infections, including COVID-19, which had accelerated the progress of chronic diseases, it said.

Kornilova said she felt that the decision on how to classify her mother-in-law’s death “depended on the party line”.

“And as far as I know, right now, the party line says... that Russia’s death toll must be as low as possible.”

The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment on individual cases or whether Russia was deliberately keeping the official death toll down.

Tatyana Golikova, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, has denied any falsification of statistics.

Unlike most countries, Russia relies on a post-mortem analysis to decide whether the death of an infected person was caused by the virus.

Some doctors, however, say the distinction is arbitrary.

“Simply put, no one ever dies ‘from’ a virus. People die from complications resulting from a virus,” Alexey Erlikh, head of the intensive cardiac care unit at Moscow’s Hospital 29, which has been designated to treat coronavirus, said.

“But they also die from the complications of a chronic illness that are caused by the virus. Some people believe that such deaths shouldn’t be counted in the coronavirus death toll. I believe they should,” Erlikh said.