This October, nearly four times more Ukrainians died of influenza and pneumonia separate of COVID-19 than in the same month of 2019, according to OpenDataBot, a company that collects and analyzes public data.
In October 2019, 579 people died of these two respiratory illnesses in Ukraine. Just a year later, that number was 1,998, data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine indicates. According to OpenDataBot, this is the highest mortality rate in the last three years.
The graphic shows how many Ukrainians died of respiratory diseases from January 2018 to October 2020. Blue columns identify deaths from respiratory diseases in total, while pink columns denote deaths from influenza and pneumonia. COVID-19 deaths are not included in the figures.
That data doesn’t include deaths from COVID-19. In October 2020, 4,050 people died from the novel coronavirus in Ukraine, according to official records.
Also, in October 2020, 2,501 Ukrainians died of all respiratory diseases combined (except COVID-19), compared to 1,085 the same month one year earlier.
There was also an increase in the overall deaths. In October 2020, 59,047 people died in Ukraine, an increase of 18% compared to the same period last year.
The graphics depicts the total mortality rate in Ukraine from January to October in 2019-2020 years.
While OpenDataBot did not draw any conclusions about what the data means, its publication comes as many experts are suggesting there are actually more cases of COVID-19 in Ukraine than are officially registered. Ukraine has never had particularly strong testing capabilities, meaning that many cases could avoid official detection.
Moreover, data is published slowly.
“Due to the fact that the State Statistics Service publishes data on mortality with a delay of two months, Ukrainians cannot really assess the scale of the problem,” OpenDataBot said in a press release.
However, there could be hope on the horizon for improving testing. Ukrainian scientists have recently developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for identifying COVID-19 and two influenza strains — A and B — at once.
“Considering the similarity of flu symptoms and the coronavirus disease, such a PCR test is especially relevant now, when Ukraine is expecting a seasonal flu epidemic,” the institute behind the new test said in an official statement.
As of Dec. 25, 17,581 people have died in Ukraine since the beginning of the pandemic.
