Moscow’s real coronavirus infection toll is more than 250,000 says the city’s mayor

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Moscow’s real coronavirus infection toll is more than 250,000 says the city’s mayor despite official figures saying the figure is 57,300

  • Moscow mayor says the infection rate is far higher than officials have recorded 
  • If he’s right, 2 per cent of Moscow’s population would be infected with Covid-10 
  • Before the mayor’s revelation Russia had reported more than 114,000 cases of the coronavirus including 57,300 cases in Moscow
  • Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

By Ryan Fahey For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Moscow’s mayor said today that the capital’s coronavirus infection toll stands at over 250,000 despite official figures recording just 57,300 cases. 

Moscow Mayor Segei Sobyanin said on his blog today that around two per cent of the city’s residents – or more than 250,000 people – have the coronavirus.

‘According to screening tests of various population groups, the real number of the infected is around 2 percent of Moscow’s total population,’ Sobyanin wrote.

Pictured: Moscow Mayor Segei Sobyanin visits a specialist coronavirus hospital outside the capital in an image issued today

Russia has so far reported more than 114,000 cases of the coronavirus including 57,300 cases in Moscow, which is the epicentre of the contagion.

According to official statistics, Moscow has a population of 12.7 million people but the real figure is believed to be higher.

Sobyanin said Moscow has significantly ramped up testing capacity over the past few weeks, adding the city has managed to ‘contain the spread of the infection’ due to the enforcement of stay-at-home rules and other measures.

 

A medical staff worker in protective gear and a woman in a face mask in a wheelchair outside an ambulance car at the Novomoskovsky multipurpose medical centre for patients with suspected coronavirus infection, in Kommunarka, near Moscow yesterday

A medical staff worker in protective gear and a woman in a face mask in a wheelchair outside an ambulance car at the Novomoskovsky multipurpose medical centre for patients with suspected coronavirus infection, in Kommunarka, near Moscow yesterday

But he reiterated that the city was not yet past the peak of the outbreak.

‘The threat is apparently on the rise,’ he said.

Russia’s official fatality rate, with 1,169 deaths as of Saturday morning, is low in comparison to countries like Italy, Spain and the United States.

The health ministry said on Friday that the number of infected children was on the rise.

Two children died from the coronavirus in the country, and 11 more were in a serious condition, the ministry said.