https://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-reporting-covid-19-cases-cover/story?id=69717763
Why is Russia reporting so few COVID-19 cases? Some say it's a cover-up
Moscow has seen a surge in "pneumonia" cases compared to last year.
By
Patrick Reevell
March 21, 2020, 9:43 AM
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world, there are growing questions in Russia about the official number of cases that have been declared.
According to the count released by its health ministry, Russia currently has only 253 confirmed cases of the virus. That is vastly lower than in other major countries in Western Europe, where there are already thousands of cases.
What really makes Russia an outlier, however, is the number of tests it is carrying out compared to its number of positive cases. Russia has done 133,101 tests, putting it behind only China, Italy and South Korea.
But with just 306 cases of the virus, Russia’s ratio of positive cases to the number of tests is the second lowest in the world, at 0.21%. Only the tiny United Arab Emirates comes lower at 0.11%, based on figures from the Our World In Data project at Oxford University.
An aerial view shows a construction site for a new infectious disease hospital, as an additional measure against the spread of the new coronavirus, on the outskirts of Moscow, March 18, 2020.An aerial view shows a construction site for a new infectious disease hospital, as an additional measure against the spread of the new coronavirus, on the outskirts of Moscow, March 18, 2020.
Moscow News Agency/via Reuters