Moscow deaths from Covid-19 halved in July compared to previous month, down 68% on May – city health department

The number of coronavirus-related fatalities in Moscow fell by around half in July. The numbers reflect a nationwide trend in which the effects of the pandemic appear to be lessening across the world's largest country.

That said, ‘excess deaths’ continue to be higher than normal in the Russian capital. “A total of 10,773 deaths were registered in Moscow in July 2020, 716 deaths more than in July 2019 and 1,040 more than July’s average (the numbers were 9,658 in 2017, 9,483 in 2018, and 10,057 in 2019),” said the city’s health department, as reported by news agency TASS.

“Covid-19 was the key or concurrent cause of death in 1,706 cases, accounting for the entire excess mortality in July. However, the number of such deaths in July was down by 50% on June, and was 68% less than in May,” it said.

This means that, officially, coronavirus was the key cause of death in 742 cases in July, against 1,605 in June and 2,757 in May. “This number includes cases when patients tested negative for Covid-19 (both when alive and post-mortem) but the autopsy and clinical symptoms indicated the coronavirus infection as a key cause of death (141 cases). It means that even questionable cases were included in coronavirus mortality statistics. No cases have been included in the statistics of regular pneumonias deaths for three months in a row,” the department noted.

As many as 964 coronavirus-positive patients died from other diseases. In 466 cases, coronavirus had “a significant influence on the development of the underlying disease and its deadly complications,” it added.

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