Rosstat: Russia recorded nearly 79,000 excess deaths in November 2020

According to the latest data from the Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat), 219,872 people died in Russia in November 2020. Compared to November 2019, the country recorded 78,541 excess deaths — an increase of 56 percent.

According to Rosstat, the coronavirus was the main cause of death for 19,626 people. It was also presumed to be the main cause of death in an additional 3,984 cases, though these were never confirmed by laboratory testing. Another 2,178 people died from other diseases influenced by COVID-19 and an additional 9,857 people died after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, though it didn’t lead to their deaths.

In other words, Rosstat’s data indicates that the coronavirus directly or indirectly affected the deaths of 25,788 people in Russia last month — a third of the increase in mortality for November 2020.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, mortality in Russia increased 13.8 percent from January to November 2020. What’s more, 81 percent of this increase is linked to the coronavirus.

In October, Rosstat data revealed that the number of deaths in Russia that month had exceeded the figure from the year before by 30.3 percent (47,777 excess deaths). According to Rosstat, the deaths of 15,607 people were linked to the coronavirus or its consequences that month.