Why is Russia reporting so few COVID-19 cases? Some say it's a cover-up

[Anon-C]

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

[lunasun]

1. Oh but I bet they are reporting to their people on all the deaths and cases outside of Russia !

Priorities !

[Anon-C]

2. The Russian test is significantly less sensitive:

But the Russian test, PCR News wrote, only detects the virus when there are over 100,000 copies of it per milliliter in a sample. That is far more than in other countries’ tests. A test in use in the U.S., for example, will pick up the virus with just 6,250 copies.

“That would mean it’s about 10-16 times less sensitive than what’s available in the U.S.,” Carmen Wiley, president of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry, told ABC News by a phone. At such a level, she said there was a risk the Russians were missing cases, in particular where people were asymptomatic.

[Squinch]

3. Gee. Ya think?

[CincyDem]

4. Do you really think the Russian Gov't would lie about a natural disaster??

Hmmmm... I mean, it’s not like they have any history of that.

[Afromania]

5. Covid cases are realllly low, but puemonia cases are way up.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-coronavirus-health-russia/sharp-increase-in-moscow-pneumonia-cases-fuels-fears-over-coronavirus-statistics-idUSKBN216305. A dozen of these 12 of the other.

[Igel]

10. This.

And their weak and elderly had high mortality rates until recently. Esp. the men.

If it hits the old men the hardest, well, coronavirus just had to stand in line.

[dewsgirl]

6. Of course they are lying.

[Chainfire]

7. They are probably not lying

Russians are just forbidden from getting the disease. Putin's orders.

[SunSeeker]

8. Trump's lying too, but he's not even building hospitals like Putin is.

[marble falls]

9. Putin is better organized to keep his lie up and working than lil' Donnie.