Mortality rate soars in Azerbaijan, authorities refuse to point finger at coronavirus despite statistics
The overall mortality rate in Azerbaijan has increased sharply, by about 50 percent, compared to in 2019. Although the country has high rates of coronavirus infection, the authorities refuse to say that the increase in deaths was related to the pandemic.
Official figures report that 6,203 people died in June 2020.
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For comparison, the same figure in 2019 was only 4,055.
The average mortality rate in June for 2014-2019 was 4,040.
“In other words, in June 2020, 2,163 ‘additional’ deaths were reported in Azerbaijan. But official figures state that only 150 people died from the coronavirus in June,” says Togrul Mashalli, an economic expert at JAMnews, on his Facebook page.
The State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan has also published data on diseases from which residents of the country most often die.
In 2019, a total of 55,916 deaths were recorded across the country. The cause of death of 58% of them was diseases of the cardiovascular system.
Oncological diseases are in second place (15.8%), in third place are injuries, poisoning and death from external factors (5%).
The coronavirus pandemic claimed the lives of 509 Azerbaijani citizens. In total, 34,744 people have been infected with the virus, and 32,201 recovered.