Russia’s health watchdog walks back statement on medical workers’ deaths from COVID-19

On June 18, Alla Samoylova, the head of Russia’s public health watchdog, Roszdravnadzor, said that 489 medical workers in Russia had died of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

Roszdravnadzor’s press service later released a statement, maintaining that this number is unofficial and claiming that Samoylova was referring to “data circulating online.”

Russia’s Health Ministry first released statistics on COVID-19 deaths among the country’s medical workers at the end of May, reporting 101 deaths. 

Meanwhile, the “Memory List” — a website where medical workers across Russia have been recording the deaths of their colleagues during the pandemic — has recorded 444 names to date.

On June 18, the Russian authorities stated that 7,660 people in Russia had died of the coronavirus so far. As such, medical workers account for 6.4 percent of all the deaths from the disease in the country.