- A doctors' union in Russia has accused authorities of disguising the extent of the country's coronavirus outbreak.
- A video from the head of the Alliance of Doctors trade union claims that officials are classifying coronavirus deaths as regular pneumonia.
- It also claims doctors are being made to treat this patients without protective gear, risking spreading the disease further.
- Hospital officials have strongly denied the claims, and suggested the union leader was trying to discredit the medical profession in Russia.
- So far Russian official figures say there are around 250 coronavirus infections and one death in its population of around 145 million.
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Doctors in Russia say the government is covering up cases of coronavirus in the country, and forcing medical staff to treat infectious patients without protective equipment.
Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of Russia's Alliance of Doctors trade union, voiced the accusation in a video published on Thursday.
She called on Russian doctors to go public with information about what she called the "true" state of the coronavirus update in the country.
"While the whole world is facing an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Russia is facing an outbreak of a community-acquired pneumonia. And as usual we're facing the lie of the authorities," Vasilyeva said.
She goes on to claim that Russian authorities are referring to coronavirus cases as ordinary pneumonia, and implying that the cases are distinct from the coronavirus pandemic.
Russia authorities have strongly denied her claims, referring to them in a statement as "not true." A statement from hospital authorities accused her of seeking "to discredit Russian medicine and relevant government agencies" and called for authorities to investigate her.
According to state media, as of March 20, in Russia 253 people had tested positive for the coronavirus. Russia has announced one death.
In an article published by the official TASS news agency on March 18, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova claimed the government had successfully kept the virus out thus far by limiting travel and quarantining people.
In her video, Vasilyeva said:
"Colleagues, you have been mobilized for the fight with the so-called 'community-acquired pneumonia' and simultaneously they make you hide the real situation, keep silent about the absence of protective equipment.
"They make you sew yourself gauze facial masks and wash them. They don't provide you with the protective suits. They put at risk you and all our country. This is silliness of the authorities. Officials want to avoid the panic."
She claimed that authorities were effectively forcing medical workers to spread the virus further, to other ill patients, by refusing to equip them properly or give them good information.
"We don't know ourselves whether we're dealing with a deadly infection or just pneumonia," she said. Already now we experience lack of hospital beds for the so-called community-acquired pneumonia."
"Our common task is to demand the protections used in the whole world. They will be intimidating you and even threaten to fire you - but that threat is nothing compared to the risk to get infected yourself and to infect your family members," she said.
One doctor in Moscow told Canada's CBC News channel that they and colleagues were avoiding diagnosing COVID-19 because of how harsh conditions are in Russian quarantine facilities, which the doctors themselves could also be sent to.
A response to Vasilyeva's video from the Moscow Department of Health said: "Since Moscow has strengthened preventive measures and improving the quality of treatment for pneumonia, three hospitals... are used as places for finding specialized patients."
It said that the large numbers of pneumonia patients was because of this reorganization, and that every patient had been tested for the coronavirus and returned negative.
It also said it "denied information about the lack of protective masks, suits and forcing doctors to treat non-coronavirus patients."
It said Vasilyeva is seeking to "disseminate misinformation about outbreaks of infection with a new virus and to discredit Russian medicine and relevant government agencies against this background. Since the head of the union has repeatedly provided fake information, the competent authorities should check its activity for violations of the law."