Coronavirus death count higher than reported

Figures from Lithuania's electronic health services system show that the country's coronavirus death count is higher by 153 cases than officially reported by the country's statistics office that receives its information from the National Public Health Center (NPHC).

COVID-19 is listed in E-health as the cause of death of 917 people, Mindaugas Samkus, spokesman for the Center of Registers, which administers system, told BNS on Friday.

The latest figures released by Statistics Lithuania on Friday morning showed that the virus had claimed 764 lives in the country.

"(The system's) statistics on deaths and causes of death are currently only provided to the Institute of Hygiene," Samkus said in a comment. "We do not know where the NPHC receives data on COVID-19 deaths from."

The NPHC says information about fatal cases comes from hospitals which are required to fill out a certain form.

"After information on excess deaths that could have been related to COVID-19 emerged, the NPHC wrote to the Centre of Registers requesting data on all COVID-19 deaths recorded in the electronic health information system," Justina Petraviciene, spokeswoman for the NPHC, told BNS in a comment.

The Center of Registers confirmed to BNS that it had received the inquiry.