Responding to media reports that they were underreporting their COVID-19 deaths, Moscow's health department explained that its health data is absolutely transparent. However, it also acknowledged that they only tallied deaths that the postmortem autopsy classified as directly caused by COVID-19 complications.

On Wednesday, the department said that 100% of the suspected COVID-19 victims underwent autopsies conducted by the authorities and only 639 were confirmed to have died directly of complications caused by coronavirus in April.

Moreover, it stated that it is impossible to put COVID-19 as the cause of death in some of the cases while also acknowledging that the spike in the countries mortality rate in April. They also noted that in at least 60% of the cases, the deaths were caused by different causes including heart failure, leukemia, malignant diseases on their last stage, and other incurable diseases.

According to CNN, itwas also stressed by the health officials that all patients who died of suspected COVID-19 went through mandatory autopsies in order to establish their true cause of death, which they claimed is very different on what is done in other countries.

More than 10,000 cases in a single day

On a trend that has been continuing resulting in Russia registering more than 240,000 cases of COVID-19, on Wednesday alone, more than 10,000 cases were reported in the country. Russia now follows the US and has tallied the second-highest number of cases. However, officials defended the rise in cases saying that it is a result of the countries massive testing program. It was also emphasized that the country has already carried out six million tests.

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According to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, out of the more than 240,000 cases of COVID-19 in the country, 100,000 are now confined in hospitals.

The death toll among medics and health care workers due to COVID-19 has also spiked up with more than 174 names listed by a group of Russian doctors. The death count, however, is unofficial and includes some from Belarus.

Russian healthcare workers have repeatedly complained about the shortage of protective equipment amidst the health crisis and noted that there is a higher death rate among medics in Russia compared to any country in the world.

It wwas also reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry has requested two Western newspapers to retract the incorrect information about the country's COVID-19 death toll that they have published.

Ventilators use was halted

After two fires broke out in coronavirus hospitals, which were suspected to have been due to faulty ventilators, Russia's health regulator called on a halt in the use of ventilators.

The two separate fires took the lives of six people who were already fighting for their lives in the intensive care wards of the COVID hospitals. The fires have been linked to 'Aventa-M' ventilators which are also the same model that Russia has shipped to the US to aid in the COVID-19 crisis.

According to the spokesperson for the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the said ventilators have already been sent to hospitals in New York and New Jersey but have not been used yet.

Related article: Faulty Ventilators May Have Caused the Deadly Blaze in Russian Hospital, Killing 5