Gravediggers wearing protective suits carry a coffin of a COVID-19 victim for burial in Moscow, Russia. AP

Russia reported 8,835 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the number of infections nationwide to 528,964.

The authorities said 119 people had died from the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 6,948.

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When Leonid Shlykov's father, Sergei, died in a Moscow hospital last month after 11 days on a ventilator, the death certificate listed the coronavirus as an underlying condition but not the actual cause of death.

"Yes, he was suffering from impaired kidney function and diabetes, but if it hadn’t been for COVID-19, he would’ve been alive,” the son wrote on Facebook. "If we had known the real number of infections and deaths … it would have helped us make the decision to hospitalize (dad) earlier.”

Gravediggers in protective suits carry the coffin of a COVID-19 victim in Kolpino, outside St.Petersburg, Russia. AP

The way Russia counts fatalities during the coronavirus pandemic could be one reason why its official death toll of 6,948 is far below many other countries, even as it has reported nearly 529,000 infections, behind only the United States and Brazil.

The paradox also has led to allegations by critics and Western media that Russian authorities might have falsified the numbers for political purposes to play down the scale of the outbreak. Even a top World Health Organization official said the low number of deaths in Russia "certainly is unusual.”

Russian authorities have bristled at the suggestions.

"We have never manipulated the official statistics,” said Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

Finding the true numbers during the pandemic is difficult, since countries count cases and deaths in different ways and testing for the virus is uneven.

Still, several factors could contribute to Russia's low virus mortality rate, including the way it counts deaths, a tendency among some officials to embellish statistics, its vast geography and the shorter life expectancy of its population.

Agencies