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Russia's state statistical service says the number of deaths nationwide in the first three months of 2021 was more than 25 per cent higher than the same period a year ago, and it reported thousands more deaths due to Covid-19 in March than tallied by the country's coronavirus task force.
More than 583,000 people died in January-March of this year in Russia, compared with 460,000 for those months in 2020, the Rosstat agency said in a report issued.
The agency did not provide an explanation for the sharply higher death toll, but critics have suggested that Russian officials underplay the severity of the pandemic in the country, AP reports.
