RUSSIA ADMITS COVID-19 DEATH TOLL MUCH HIGHER

Russia's coronavirus death toll is more than triple the official figures previously reported by health authorities, according to the country's statistics agency., according to a Euronews report.

The number currently stands at 55,265 deaths from COVID-19, but the Rosstat federal state statistic service says the true figure is much, much higher, and reports 186,057 people dying with the disease.

This would mean Russia has the third worst death toll to the virus, behind that of the US and Brazil

It did not explain why on Monday the total had jumped more than three times over, but it is thought this is due to previously reported figures only including deaths where the virus was found to be a cause after a post-mortem.

Monday's figures, however, appear to include all coronavirus-related deaths.

This also comes after Rosstat said there had been an increase of 229,700 deaths from all causes between January and November in comparison to last year — the majority of which have been attributed to the virus.

"More than 81% of this increase in mortality over this period is due to COVID," said Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, adding that autumn and winter months had seen deaths increase as COVID-19 and other illnesses spread co-morbidly.

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