Finding the true numbers during the pandemic is difficult, since countries count cases and deaths in different ways and testing for the virus is uneven. Still, several factors could contribute to Russia's low virus mortality rate, including the way it counts deaths, a tendency among some officials to embellish statistics, its vast geography and the shorter life expectancy of its population. She deals with coronavirus deaths almost daily, but said only about 20% of them have been attributed to COVID-19. In other cases, the virus was determined to be an underlying condition. Unlike Russia, some countries' official death count includes those who had COVID-19 but died from other causes, said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

Source: Daily Sun June 14, 2020 07:31 UTC