MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th May, 2020) Russian hospitals have no interest in downplaying their coronavirus death toll because of economic reasons, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said on Sunday.
Golikova, who heads Russia's coronavirus response center, explained in a television appearance that treatment for coronavirus patients is paid out of the state medical insurance fund which covers salaries, medication costs, medical and proactive equipment apart from the actual treatment of every coronavirus patient in the country.
"Don't even think that our doctors are trying to somehow hide COVID or not COVID ... We have a fairly high treatment rate for COVID. It is more than the rates for cardiovascular diseases. And even if we take the economic factor, it would seem that any hospital should be interested in delivering more COVID," Golikova said on state tv.
A day prior, Golikova estimated that the coronavirus mortality rate in Russia is 7.5 times lower than the world's average with only a 0.9 percent case-fatality ratio, compared to the United States' 6.1 percent.
The low mortality rate has become the focus of much public discussion in Russia, with several domestic and foreign media outlets questioning the authenticity of the official statistics.
