Russia registered 172,914 deaths in May, up by 18,375 or 11.9% from the same month the previous year, data from the state statistics service Rosstat showed on Friday.
This included 12,452 deaths of people suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19, Rosstat data showed. Of these, COVID-19 was registered as the primary cause of death in 7,444 cases.
Many countries are looking at such "all-cause mortality" statistics as a guide to understanding the full impact of the virus, as some deaths caused by COVID-19 may go unrecorded, while the death toll from other illnesses may also rise during a time when healthcare systems are under strain.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Alex Richardson)
