COVID-19 pandemic in Russia

COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	Russia
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China
Index case	Tyumen and Chita (global); Moscow (local)
Arrival date	31 January 2020
Confirmed cases	21,141,674
Recovered	20,307,569
Deaths	403,188; 387,887 (Ministry of Health); 820,307 (Rosstat);
Fatality rate	1.66%
Vaccinations	89,081,600 (total vaccinated); 79,702,400 (fully vaccinated); 187,374,510 (doses administered);
Government website
	стопкоронавирус.рф

The COVID-19 pandemic in Russia was a part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The virus was confirmed to have spread to Russia on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese citizens in Tyumen (Siberia) and Chita (Russian Far East) tested positive for the virus. Early prevention measures included restricting the China–Russia border and extensive testing. The infection spread from Italy on 2 March, leading to additional measures such as cancelling events, closing schools, theatres, and museums, as well as shutting the border and declaring a non-working period which, after two extensions, lasted until 11 May 2020. By the end of March 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed by the majority of federal subjects of Russia, including Moscow. By the end of 2021, there were nearly 10.5 million cases and nearly 310,000 deaths in the country.

Russia had the tenth-highest number of confirmed cases in the world, after the United States, India, France, Brazil, Germany, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan. According to detailed data published by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), 114,268 people with COVID-19 died between April and November 2020.^[5]^[6] However, over 300,000 excess deaths^[7] were reported in the same time period, suggesting that the official pandemic death tally greatly underestimated the true number of COVID-19 related deaths.^[8]^[9]

Analysis of excess deaths from official government statistics, based on births and deaths and excluding migration, showed that Russia had its largest ever annual population drop in peacetime, with the population declining by 997,000 between October 2020 and September 2021, which demographer Alexei Raksha interpreted as being primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[10]

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Rus_Taskforce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b "Коронавирус – симптомы, признаки, общая информация, ответы на вопросы — Минздрав России" (in Russian). Ministry of Health (Russia). Retrieved 19 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Mathieu, Edouard; Ritchie, Hannah; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Hasell, Joe; Macdonald, Bobbie; Dattani, Saloni; Beltekian, Diana; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Roser, Max (2020–2024). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
^ "Russia's official toll of COVID-related deaths exceeds 820,000". Reuters. 5 August 2022.
^ Cite error: The named reference rosstat-dec20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference mortality-nov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Russia's Mortality Hit 16-Year High in November, Official Data Says". The Moscow Times. 29 December 2020.
^ Troianovski, Anton (10 April 2021). "'You Can't Trust Anyone': Russia's Hidden Covid Toll Is an Open Secret". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
^ "New figures suggest Russia had third highest COVID-19 death toll in 2020". reuters.com. 8 February 2021.
^ Sauer, Pjotr (13 October 2021). "Russia's population undergoes largest ever peacetime decline". The Guardian.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[Rus_Taskforce-1] Cite error: The named reference Rus_Taskforce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Ministry-2] "Коронавирус – симптомы, признаки, общая информация, ответы на вопросы — Минздрав России" (in Russian). Ministry of Health (Russia). Retrieved 19 April 2020.

[Template:COVID-19_data-4] Mathieu, Edouard; Ritchie, Hannah; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Hasell, Joe; Macdonald, Bobbie; Dattani, Saloni; Beltekian, Diana; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Roser, Max (2020–2024). "Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)". Our World in Data. Retrieved 1 April 2025.

[5] "Russia's official toll of COVID-related deaths exceeds 820,000". Reuters. 5 August 2022.

[rosstat-dec20-6] Cite error: The named reference rosstat-dec20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[mortality-nov-7] Cite error: The named reference mortality-nov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[8] "Russia's Mortality Hit 16-Year High in November, Official Data Says". The Moscow Times. 29 December 2020.

[9] Troianovski, Anton (10 April 2021). "'You Can't Trust Anyone': Russia's Hidden Covid Toll Is an Open Secret". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 April 2021.

[10] "New figures suggest Russia had third highest COVID-19 death toll in 2020". reuters.com. 8 February 2021.

[11] Sauer, Pjotr (13 October 2021). "Russia's population undergoes largest ever peacetime decline". The Guardian.

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