A total of 5,546 people in Russia, including 154 children, have suffered from hypothermia and frostbite from Jan. 1 to Feb. 13, the Health and Social Development Ministry told Interfax on Monday.
Some 3,382 people, including 52 children, were taken to hospital in that period.
"The cold killed 215 people, all of them adults," the ministry said.
Deputy Health and Social Development Minister Maxim Topilin said on February 3 that cold had killed over 60 people in Russia.
"Sixty-four people, all of them adults, died of hypothermia in 50 regions in January 2012. A total of 1,371 people, including 25 children, asked for medical aid, and 779 were hospitalized," he said.
Abnormal cold gripped nearly 60 regions of Russia in early February. Southern Russia – the Krasnodar territory, Dagestan and the Volgograd region – and the northwestern Murmansk region suffered most. Cold and snowfalls caused numerous public utility accidents and transport problems.
Weatherman said that the weather of this February is unprecedented relative to the past few years.
